Left Behind
by scarleteyes21
Summary: After rejoining the X-men Rogue is having some difficulties with Logan being the new leader. Their faith and trust in each other is put to the test when they find a bloody and beaten Gambit on the front steps of the X-mansion
1. Chapter 1

Rogue watched from a safe distance as Logan debriefed the X-men about what had happened in Genosha. The new war room looked more modern with its greenish-blue lights, state of the art computers, and sleek metal table. Everyone seemed so different at the moment.

Rogue couldn't help but study the new x-men leader. It seemed odd to her still that of all people the Professor trusted, he chose _Wolverine_ to lead the X-men into _peace._

It wasn't that Logan hated peace; it was just that from what Rogue had experienced with him and from what she learned from absorbing him, was that Logan was a very coarse man to mess with.

But with Scott down in the dumps about Jean, she guessed that the Professor relied on Logan to keep the team in check.

She looked at him again. She could still remember the way he looked at her after she joined the brotherhood. He was hurt, and the way he had looked at her had hurt her. It was as if she no longer existed to him. That their time together meant nothing anymore.

When she came back into the X-men, everyone was willing to give her a second chance, except for Wolverine who had thrown her into a prison cell as if she were a common thug.

She should have known that not everything would have gone back to normal after leaving the brotherhood. She missed Logan; she missed their talks, his hugs, and his love.

Out of everyone in the mansion, Logan was the only one she trusted. She knew his habit of running away, she hated it. She still remembered all those times waiting for Logan to call the mansion to say that he was alright, or that he missed her…something!  
Her head was so high in the clouds that she never heard Logan call her name, until he tapped her shoulder.

"Rogue?"  
She jumped, "L-Logan. Don't do that!" she laid a hand to her heart to calm herself down. Logan only grunted his apology; he had his usual everyday clothes: a gray t-shirt and jeans. The smell of cigar smoke and cheap cologne followed him everywhere. It was a smell that Rogue hated to admit she missed.

"You get what I was talking about there? You didn't seem like you were following it at all." Logan asked. His gruff voice sent shivers down Rogue's spine.

Rogue massaged the back of her neck; she still could recall images and information that she had siphoned from Magneto and Kelly.

"Yeah, Ah did."

Logan gave her a brisk nod and started to walk away.

Rogue sighed; he didn't like talking to her unless it was X-men business. "Did Frost find anything about that mutant that tried to take Magneto's helmet?" she called out to him.

Logan turned around again, "Nope, where ever he went off too. He's not using his powers. Punk almost killed everyone in Genosha."

Rogue bit her lower lip; she could tell he was itching to leave her.

"Maybe he had a reason."

Logan chuckled at her naivety, "No good punks like him Rogue never have a reason. They're just stupid greedy criminals."

"Like you?"

Where did that come from? Rogue's eyes widened in shock at her own guts. Rogue, in the past, had never spoken like that to Logan.

Logan growled, "What was that?"

"Ah said, 'Like you?'" she put her hands on her hips, "You only help people when you know there is something in it for you, other wise you don't give a damn about anybody except yourself."

She could hear everyone gasps in horror and shock

"Oh-oh." Said Bobby as Logan started to become angry. He looked as if he were trying his best to contain himself.

"Admit it, the only reason why you even cared to put back the X-men was because you owed the Professor." Rogue seethed.

She knew where all this was coming from, unrequited anger at Logan for up and leaving her so many times. She was regretting those times where Jean had insisted in talking with her about her pent up emotions.

But it was too late for that, the ball was moving and it was rolling _quickly_.

"The X-men are back because the world needs us! Otherwise Genosha would be wiped off the face of the map."  
Rogue scowled at him, angrier than ever at him for pulling the 'X-men are needed' crap on her.

"Yeah, where were you when we faced Magneto in New York City? Or in the Savage Land? Or how about the time we had to fight Sinister and his stupid marauders in the sewers?"

Logan crossed his arms wordlessly; he knew what she was talking about.

"You weren't there for any of those Logan." He wasn't looking at her "What? Was the world not needing you then?"

"You can't even figure out your past, what makes you think you can lead us?"

That struck a nerve with Logan.

_SNIKT_

"Logan, stop!" Scott called out to the feral man. Rogue could feel Logan's claws right by her left ear. She could almost feel the warm metal against her skin

He was looking into her eyes, and for just a slight minute he could see fear. But it was quickly replaced by anger and disappointment.

"That's enough; the two of you should be over what ever it is between you two." Scott lectured them; it almost felt like old times. "This team can't make it if you two keep fighting like this."

Logan retracted his claws; his blue eyes were filled with furry. But he kept his voice clear and calm for the team's sake. "Chuck chose _me _to lead this team, so excuse me for not caring for what a former Brotherhood member thinks."

Rogue's nostril flared in annoyance, trust Logan to throw that in he face when he could. She held her head high and kept her tone equal to his as he walked away from her, "Whatever you say, _Weapon X_." she smiled coolly. Logan stood rock still, she thought for a second he might turn around and attack her. But instead he just continued to walk away.

Emma shook her head in confusion and amusement, "You shouldn't get under his skin." Rogue didn't even care to look at the blond telepath, "Ah know him better that you ever could. Trust me, Ah haven't even begun to scratch the surface yet."

Emma raised a delicate dyed blond eyebrow, "Oh really? Well, I never really thought your relationship with Logan was that deep."

"It's not." She sighed, "Ah absorbed Logan plenty of times to know what's going on in his head."

Emma tried to smile, "Must be nice."

Ororo put a gentle hand on Rogue's shoulder, "We all know that you and Logan have a very…unique friendship. But you must restrain yourself when dealing with him about your anger. Other wise you may cause a greater more permanent damage in your relationship with him and the team."

Rogue sulked and brushed away the Weather Goddess's hand, "Did everyone just forget how Logan ended up an X-man anyway?" she asked in disbelief and somewhat sarcastically.

She couldn't really believe that everyone had such high hopes for Logan as leader. She looked at Scott, who at times held great loathing for the feral mutant, for support. Rogue could barely make out his brown eyes (she had absorbed him well enough to know the colors of his eyes) through his ruby glasses. All she saw was sadness and doubt.

"Ah can't believe it." She sighed bitterly as she ran out, ignoring the calls from Ororo and Bobby behind her.

After a minute of no one talking, Emma asked a question that couldn't be answered by looking through Rogue and Logan's mind.

"What kind of relationship did Rogue and Logan have?" She looked the team, "One minute I'm getting happy images, the next its images of those two yelling, or Rogue crying." Everyone looked at Ororo for the answer, since none of them could really figure out what to say.

"Rogue and Logan's relationship can best be described as 'off and on enigma'." She looked idly at Emma to gather her response before continuing. "And it currently happens to be 'off' at the moment."

Rogue was having a fitful sleep, no position seemed comfortable enough.

_TINK_

She sat up in her bed in her long black night gown, the cold air made her skin prickle. The mansion was usually quiet at night and no one liked to be up this early in the morning due to early danger room sessions.

_TINK_

"Lordy," she whispered to herself as she got out of bed, she abandoned her gloves incase there was an intruder breaking into the mansion. "wouldn't be the first." Rogue crept out to the hallway. She could hear the noise more clearly now.

She knew that if someone had broken into the mansion that the new security alarm would have woken the team up.

As Rogue descended down the staircase she could smell it, burning electrical wires, plastic, and something else. She covered up her noise and mouth so as not to inhale the strong harsh odor.

The lights suddenly turned on, illuminating beige painted walls and wooden floored foyer. "Rogue?" She jumped and turned to see Logan in sweatpants. He gave her a strange look before asking, "You heard that too?" in a very gruff voice that made her squirm a little.

Rogue nodded silently as Logan went to open the mansion door to see what was out there.

Rogue heard him swear, she took a peek to see what he was going off about and gasped. There in front of them on the dirty cement steps of the X-mansion laid a tall wiry man. His clothes were torn and singed to a crisp, his left arm looked dislocated, and his right pants leg was soaked in blood. Rogue looked at his face; it was black and blue all over. His lips were busted, he had a horrible second degree burns that ran from his cheek to his shoulder, and his eyes were swelled shut with bruises. Not to mention his forehead and hair looked like a bloody mess.

"Oh mah Gawd." Rogue mumbled, this was the worse condition she had ever seen somebody in and it shook her to the core of her bones. The smell alone made her feel as if she were going to pass out. But she forced herself hold onto what little of conscious she had left.

Logan leaned down and growled a bit. He stood up again and began to leave until Rogue called out to him.

"We're not going tah help him!?" She asked in disbelief, there was no way that Logan would leave a helpless person to die.

"Nope, guy deserved what he got. Go to sleep Rogue." He ordered, but Rogue stood her ground and crossed her arms over her chest in defiance.

"NO! He needs our help Logan!"

Logan sneered at her, he didn't like it when people told him 'no'. Especially if the same person had insulted him earlier in the day.

He pointed to the bloody and beaten body, "You don't know what you're talking about, kid. That's Gambit."

She looked at the man again and vaguely recognized him from Magneto and Kelly's memories. He was the one that had set the bombs in Genosha, he was also the one that was about to sell power inhibitor collar to Kelly and the MRD. She knew Gambit was obviously working for the other team. But that didn't mean that he didn't deserve their medical attention.

"If I ever find out who did this to him, I'll buy them a drink." Logan smirked. "Leave him. We'll clean up in the morning." Rogue looked down at Gambit. "Yah cant be serious? He'll die!"

"Not our problem. I'll call the MRD tomorrow to pick him up."

"So you're just going to hand him off to a mutant death camp!?" Logan could clearly hear the hysterics in Rogue's voice rising. Rogue had a certain habit of sympathizing with the enemy when they had gotten hurt. Whether it was Magneto or a member of the brotherhood, her conscience took place before her duty. Which in some cases had pissed him off.

He looked down at her while she kneeled down to check on Gambit. "He's not worth it Rogue."

He was walking away from the two when he heard Rogue mumble something under her breath that made him freeze.

"The professor would help him."

Logan slowly turned around and, while cussing up a storm, picked up the battered and bloodied mutant.

Four hours later Rogue was sitting in the med bay lounge. She could only watch Logan and Beast talk about the injuries Gambit had suffered through the window of his room.

The furry blue doctor had only his white lab coat over his green and blue pajama pants and white t-shirt; he snapped off his bloodied surgical gloves and threw them away.

"I was able to take out the bullets in his side." Hank explained solemnly to Rogue, "There's some damage to his spleen and pancreas, I was also able to patch up his leg. Luckily for him, he's whole knee wasn't crushed. But his left arm is broken, not to mention he has a concussion."

"Will he be alright?" Rogue asked hopefully  
Hank gave out a discontented sigh, "He lost a lot of blood, and he will have to go to psychical therapy. Whoever or whatever took him out really did a number on him. "

Rogue bit her lip; through the window she could see Emma and Logan over Gambit's bed. Her anger began to stir, "What are they doing?"

Hank looked to see what she was talking about; he saw Emma lay her hand down on Gambit's forehead while Logan watched impatiently.

Hank cleared his throat; he could see Rogue getting agitated. "Well, Logan thought while Gambit is recuperating that he may as well let Emma look into his memories."

"So he could get information?"

Before Hank could grab her, Rogue swung the door open and asked with the anger obvious in her tone "What do yah think you're doing?"

Logan didn't even look at her, "Trying to find out what the hell happened to him."

"Don't you think that we should wait till he gets up before we let Frost go prancing around his mind?"

Emma released her mental hold on Gambit; the all-dressed-up-in-white telepath huffed in annoyance. "Well, my dear Rogue, you don't have to worry about me _prancing_ around his head. I can't get through his mental blocks."

"What?"

Emma casted a cloudy look at Logan and smiled as she smoothed down the wrinkles on her blouse. "His mental blocks are strong for a mutant. Not only that, I can't even seem to connect to him in the astral plane."

She crossed her arms, "So I guess I can't give information about his contract with Kelly." Emma watched as Rogue stood rigid in anger, she wanted to see these two fight again, it was so entertaining.

"Logan, you know that the Professor wouldn't condone this." Unfortunately for Emma, Ororo had decided to intervene in her fun. The weather witch looked at three of them before walking towards Gambit. Ororo gently brushed Gambit's hair back and stroked his cheek.

"Storm?" Logan looked questionably at her, surprised by her maternal nurturing for the young man.

"Until he wakes up, no more looking into his mind. That's the last thing Gambit needs." Ororo looked at Logan, waiting for him to go against her.

Instead Logan stomped off with Emma following behind. Rogue jumped a bit when she felt Ororo hand slip into her own gloved hand. "Thank you for helping him, Rogue. You did the right thing"

If Rogue hadn't seen it, she wouldn't have believed it. Ororo's bright blue eyes were watery and her usual smooth coco skin was blotchy.

"Storm…?" she started to ask, but Ororo waved her off. Instead Ororo just hugged her awkwardly and left.

The sound of the heart monitor and Gambit's slow breathing filled the room. Rogue moved one of the guest chairs over closer to his bed, she could only watch helplessly and wonder who could have done this.

_He could feel the first bullet in his side as he took out two large men. He was able to crush the second man's skull in, but a third man punched him in the back of his head. He charged a deck of cards and threw them at four more men who were running to join the fight. He could only watch as the cards blew up the men, victory was almost his till the second bullet hit him in the same spot as the first one did. He could feel the blood oozing out, warm and flowing. He started to feel light headed._

Gambit opened his eyes to find himself looking up at a white ceiling with suspending light fixtures. The sound of the heart monitor grew faster when he discovered he couldn't move, the sound almost doubled when he saw the needle and stitches in his arm. His other arm and leg were in a cast.

"No, no, no, no…" he looked around the room widely. He was in a hospital, the smell of rubbing alcohol, ammonia and bleach made his stomach churn. He had to get out and quick before they came looking for him. He had to find him, he had to save him. Gambit knew that he would have done the same for him.

He was already out the bed, the pain in his body was excruciating. What ever medication the nut jobs were giving him, wasn't working properly. Gambit knew his body had a habit of healing itself in no time.

"Whoah, where do you think you're goin'?" The light southern accented female voice caught him by surprise. The girl, covered up in a black and green t-shirt, long jeans, and gloves, looked a bit scared of him. She stepped back slightly when she saw his red on black eyes start to glow. Gambit grabbed the sheets from his bed and charged them.

"Tell me where I am, or dis place goes boom." He threatened her in a sore voice. Instead of looking more scared, the girl looked surprised. Rogue wasn't expecting to hear a Cajun accent; it made her think of home.

Except home didn't threaten to blow her up like Gambit was at the moment.

"You're in Xavier's school for the gifted and talented." She explained to him slowly, "We found you last night and took you in."

Gambit could feel her lying about the last part. Someone didn't want him here according to her feelings he was picking up from his empathy.

"You-you look better." Rogue finally said lamely after Gambit just stood there silently studying her. Before Rouge could even blink, Gambit had the charged blanket around her. She could only wonder how a guy with a broken leg and a broken arm could move that fast. When she looked up at him, she could see the pain he was biting back.

"Where. Is. Wolverine?" he asked her gruffly, the blanket began to grow even warmer around her middle.

"Ah-he's here somewhere. Ah could-"

He tighten the blanket around her middle again, "Scream." He ordered her.

"What?"  
"Scream or dis place will need a new paint job."

A shrill female scream rang through the med bay and beyond the walls. In the kitchen the X-men froze in their spots.

"What was that?" Scott asked.

Logan snarled, "That was Rogue." His claws shot out. "And she's scared."

Five minutes later the whole team was in the room, carefully watching Gambit as he held Rogue hostage.

"Where is he?" Gambit growled, Rogue could feel his hot breath tickle her right ear. The smell of his dried up blood made her head spin. She wished she could absorb him, but she couldn't pull off one of her gloves without moving.

"Where's who?" Bobby asked, already in his ice form. He was about to freeze the Cajun to the spot, but Emma warned him otherwise through telepathy.

"He knows." Gambit pointed a shaky finger at Logan. Logan snarled as he heard Rogue whimper in pain, the charged blanket was burning her skin.

"I don't know. So why don't we let the girl go. Before you get hurt." He explained the best he could in a calm matter.

But Gambit wasn't buying it; instead he wrapped his good arm around Rogue's neck. "Where's Wade?"

The team could feel and see Logan's mood shift. The name rang thousands of bells through Logan's mind.

"How do you know Wade?"

Gambits absorbed some of the energy from the blanket, but his hold on Rogue tightened. "Where is he?!" the Cajun yelled.

"I haven't seen Wade in months. I don't know or care where he is."

Gambit sensed he was telling the truth. "Dieu." He absorbed the energy from the blanket and shoved Rogue into Scott and Kitty.

Gambit started to mumble like a mad man, "I got t'go find him." He didn't move more then two feet before Logan grabbed him and pinned him against the wall.

"You just held a member of my team hostage and threaten her life. You think we just let you go like that?" Logan snorted, "They're going to be picking up pieces of you for weeks, bub."

The metal in Logan's body began to burn. Gambit smirked smugly and held on tightly to Logan's shirt since he was trying to back away.

"I could say de same t'you, mon ami."

"Gambit. Logan. Enough!" Ororo ordered. A wave of thunder and lighting shook the house. Both men loosened their hold on the other and backed away.

Ororo smiled, "That's better." She ordered Gambit to sit back in the bed again; to Logan's surprise the Cajun listened to her.

"Now," she began "What is this about a missing friend?"  
"Wade Wilson, aka Deadpool. He's a mutant mercenary." Logan explained to the team. "The guy kills for a living and for the fun of it." He brought his attention to Gambit.

"He the one that did this to you?"  
Gambit shook his head 'no'. "He's my friend; he's been missing for a week. Have a feeling dat whoever tried to kidnap me also kidnapped him."

"How did you and Wilson become friends?" Logan asked curiously, he could see how a professional thief and assassin could become chummy, but he couldn't see why Gambit would care for a guy like Wade Wilson.

Gambit studied Logan for a few seconds and chuckled. "Y'really don't remember me, do you?" he asked.

The whole room grew quiet, the X-men could only stand and watch as Logan tried to figure out what Gambit meant by that.

Gambit sighed, knowing full well the Logan couldn't remember him. If he had, their first run in would have been filled with more questions about their past.

"I have to go find him."  
"Yah have a broken arm, leg, and a concussion." Rogue spoke up for the first time. Hank had been kind enough to patch up her middle in another room.

Gambit just shrugged, "I heal fast." He turned his attention back to Logan. "I need to save him." He tried to get up from the bed, but Logan sat him down again.

"Rogue's right, you're not any condition to leave. Plus you just said it yourself bub, someone tried to kidnap you, you really think the smart thing to do is to go back out there without a clue on where to start?"

Gambit sulked; he knew full well that Logan was right. But he needed to find Deadpool quick. He knew what they would do to Deadpool, and he didn't want that on his conscience.

"I'll t'ink of somet'ing."

"Well right now you need to rest." Hank warned him, "Or else I could give you a syringe full of morphine."

Fear was written across Gambit's face. He hated needles with every fiber in his being.

"I'll be good." He gritted through his teeth.

Hank and Logan smiled at each other, "Good." As the others started to walk out Rogue stayed behind.

"See somethin' y'like, chere?" Gambit asked in amusement. Rogue blushed; she hadn't realized that she had been starring at him.

"Are you alright?" she asked softly. Gambit was about to respond but Logan interrupted him.

"Rogue, I want to see you. Now." He barked at her.

Rogue flipped him off behind his back, earning her a laugh from Gambit. She turned to look at him.

"Go on, cher. Don't look like I'll be leaving anytime soon."

**-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

**Marvel owns all the characters, but I own the plot. **

**Some spoiler scenes from WATX. **

**Good start or not? Romy or Rogan? **

**Thanks :-) **


	2. Chapter 2

Rogue bit the inside of her cheek while Logan leaned against the door of the war room. He looked livid as he waited for her to make the first move. But Rogue stayed quiet and Logan began to grow more impatient.

"What the hell did you think you were doing?" he barked at her. Rogue avoided looking into his eyes. "You almost got yourself killed."

Rogue casted her head down, she said nothing as she took a seat by the desk.

"You got anything to say to me?"

"Like you care."

Logan pounded his fist on the table. The contents on the table rattled, but Rogue remained cool and unfazed.

"I watched you as that Cajun filth thought about letting your guts turn inside out. You don't think I care?!"

Rogue stood up, "Now you know how Ah felt. All those time Logan; yah didn't think that Ah wanted to know where you were?"

Logan rubbed his face "Look kid, I didn't-"

"Ah'm not a kid Logan! Is that what you still see me as? A kid?" she brushed past him to walk away, but Logan grabbed her arm.

"Fine, you're not a kid. But you sure as hell are acting like one."

"Ah'm not."

Logan smirked and for a second the two felt better. It felt like old times, just Logan and Rogue goofing off and joking like nothing had ever happened.

But reality set in and Logan was determined for Rogue not to visit the new injured visitor.

"He's wasn't going to do anything to me." Rogue stated calmly, "He was just scared. Remember when you-"

Logan raised his hand to stop her; he didn't feel like going down his short and dusty memories.

"I don't want you anywhere near him. And not just because of what happened Rogue, but if he is actually friends with Wade Wilson, then he's more trouble than I thought."  
Rogue sifted through the memories she absorbed through Logan. She vaguely saw Deadpool in his memories. And those memories were not pretty.

"Maybe Ah can absorb some of his memories? Then maybe we can-?"  
"There's no 'we' in this Rogue." Said Logan curtly, he grabbed some files that Hank left for him to look through and started to work on them.

Rogue crossed her arm, annoyed that this was the way their little chat was going to end. "You're gonna hand him off to the MRD, aren't yah?"

Logan never cared to look up, "End of discussion Rogue."

Rogue briskly turned on her heels and started to walk out, but paused when she got to the door.

"Yah know everyone here just accepted yah when you first came here Logan. The Professor could have called the police when he found out what you came here for; he could have sent you off to some other mutant death camp."

Logan didn't look or say anything to her.

"Gambit might be a traitor, but you're a hypocrite." She slammed the door.

Rogue never heard Logan flip the gigantic desk over in rage.

Bobby bit deep down into his apple as he watched Hank and Kitty learn more about Gambit.

"I don't know why you two want to know so much about this guy, he'll be gone before the week's through." He told them, he leaned back against his chair and rested his feet up on a pile of books.

"We're just trying to better understand him." Hank took off his glasses and wiped them down, "Any luck Kitty?"

"No," Kitty pulled out two of the books that were supporting Bobby's feet, causing the young blond to fall back.

"Hey!"

Kitty rolled her eyes and tugged on her braids in annoyance, "I can't find anything on this guy. I've looked through all of the records in every hospital in Louisiana." She turned her swivel chair around to face Hank. "Nothing. It's like this guy was born from thin air."

Hank looked through all of the data she pulled up from the computer, "Have you tried other state hospitals?"

Kitty nodded, "I've tried Texas, Mississippi, and Arkansas. Nada."

The idea of an out-from-nowhere mutant suddenly interested Bobby. "Weird. Maybe he wasn't born in the south?"

Hank rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "Maybe. Could be that he wasn't born in the US at all." He sighed, "Keep looking through other state's record. There could be something." He told Kitty.

"Any luck with you, Beast?"

Hank looked through the slides of Gambit's blood.

"Actually, yes." He pulled up a scan of Gambit's DNA. Bobby and Kitty surrounded his desk as they took in the scan compared to a normal human and mutant DNA scan.

"It's..it's…" Bobby fumbled for a word to use.

"It's been clearly been fussed with." Hank declared as he examined Gambit's blood samples. He pulled out a folder full of colorful pictures of Gambit's operation.

"Ew. What is this?" Kitty squealed while trying to avoid looking at a picture of Gambit's brain.

"Dude…those sutures are seriously messed up." Bobby leafed through of pictures of Gambit's skull. "The guy is like a mutant Franken Stein or something."

Hank agreed solemnly, "Who ever has been conducting surgery on Gambit has done a number on him."

"Why would anyone want to get brain surgery? Did he actually need it?"

The three jumped at the sound of Scott's voice. The former X-men leader looked disgusted at the pictures and scans.

"No, he didn't need it. His reasons were about control." Henry picked up a scan of Gambit's frontal and parietal lobe.

"The frontal and parietal control most mutant's powers, and as you see here Gambit has had a lot of surgeries done on those two lobes, along with minor operations on his occipital lobe. What ever his power level is now is probably more than ten times weaker than his original power level." Scott snatched the picture from the doctor's hand, something caught his attention.

"Kitty, Bobby. Leave, now."

"Hey, we're helping here." Kitty snapped, pointing to her lap top and books as evidence.

"Now!"

Bobby and Kitty begrudgingly left, "If you need us Beast, you know where to find us." Scott didn't even wait for them to turn around; he shut the door right in their faces.

Hank crossed his arms, "Well, dare I say you seem more jovial than usual." He commented sarcastically looking crossed at Scott.

"Do you remember when Sinister kidnapped Jean and me?" Scott asked him. The question brought back the nightmare of a memory for the furry blue doctor. For about two weeks the X-men were looking for Jean and Scott non stop after the two were kidnapped from the park. Sinister had wanted them so he could create the "perfect" mutant off-spring. Unfortunately for Sinister, the X-men were able to find them.

"Yes. Why do you ask?"

Scott picked up an x-ray of Gambit's skull. He studied it for while, trying to figure out if his hypothesis could be plausible. "I don't remember everything that happened during those two weeks. But I remember getting a glimpse of x-rays that Sinister was showing me."

He looked at Hank, who looked bewildered but slowly Hank was catching on. "You don't think-?" Fear ran through Hank's mind at Scott's conclusion.

Scott cocked his head and sighed, "Stranger things have happened."

Kurt eyed the damage done to the war room through the web cam. He was in Genosha helping to rebuild when Wanda told him that Storm and Emma were calling for him.

"Is everything alright?" Kurt asked worriedly. From what he could see neither Ororo nor Emma looked as if they were in a fight.

"Depends on how you look at it." Emma smiled, fully enjoying the fight between Logan and Rogue.

Kurt looked at Emma bitterly, he didn't like the telepath nor did he trust her. There was something so off putting about her.

"Ororo?"

The white haired weather witch picked up a part of a chair that had been sliced off, "Logan and Rogue are having problems of the late."

"What about?" Kurt couldn't recall those two ever fighting this badly before.

"Mostly about Logan abandoning Rogue. Along with trust issues on both sides." Emma informed him.

"It's also about Gambit."

Kurt suddenly turned angry, "Have you found him yet?"

"Actually we have him. He came here last night in very bad shape."

Kurt sniffed, his blue tail waving eagerly behind him. "Serves him right. Is Logan sending him here or to the MRD?"

Kurt and Emma missed Ororo cringe at the thought of Gambit being sent away.

"Logan hasn't decided yet. I could look into head if it weren't for a certain somebody." Emma turned her head and looked at Ororo, giving her a very haughty look.

Kurt caught on quickly, "He almost killed everyone here. We could know more about what his agendas really were."

Ororo bit her lip, how could she explain to them?

"The Professor wouldn't approve of us looking into someone's mind without permission, especially if that person came here in need of help."  
"He's a traitor Storm! How dare you stick up for him?" Kurt shouted over the web cam. His eerie yellow eyes began to glow brighter through his dark blue bangs.

"He was also shot twice in his side, suffered a broken leg, nose, arm, a concussion, second degree burns, and a number of stitches." Ororo replied angrily. Emma could hear the sounds of lighting and thunder as Ororo's eyes began to turn white.

Kurt casted his head down, the two women barely heard Kurt mumble "He deserved more."

"Why do you care so much for him?" Emma asked casually. Before Ororo could answer Emma stopped her, "And please, do not think I believe 'it's what the professor would have want' junk."

Ororo mulled over the possible answers, and for a second she thought of telling the truth. But now wasn't the time for that story.

"Gambit came here for our help. And that is what he is going to get."

She stared down at Emma, daring her to talk back.

"Is that understood?"

Kurt blanched, he could hear lightning strike the mansion from Genosha.

Emma gave a ghost of a smile. "Crystal, darling."

_Later…_

Rogue was sure she locked the garage after she came back from store. But sure enough the garage door was wide open; she peeked in and found a dark haired man in a dark grey trench kneeling down by Logan's bike.

She thought it was Scott.

"Yah know how Logan feels about it his bike, Slim." She joked. 'Scott' got up and faced her.

It was Gambit.

"What are you doing here?" she growled at him. She spotted a lock pick in his right hand.

Gambit didn't care much about being caught in the act. He leaned slowly back down and continued to pick the lock on Logan's bike.

"Somewhere out dere someone has got Wade. And your petit amis _aren't_helping." Gambit sneered. The lock came off a second later, Gambit grinned smugly as he hotwired the ignition to start and mounted the bike.

Rogue put a hand on his shoulder to stop him. "You almost got yourself killed out there. Can yah at least wait till Logan gets some information about your friend?"

Gambit shrugged, "Sure."

Rogue arched her eyebrow in confusion. She thought it would take a lot more to persuade him.

"Is your boyfriend gonna give me de info before or after he sends me off t'de MRD?" Gambit asked bitterly, his eyes were glowing dully and his mouth was set in a hard straight line.

Rogue stepped away from him in shame. He knew about Logan's plans for him. "Ah don't blame you for wanting to find your friend or for running away." She looked at him pleadingly. "But you can't go out there when you're being hunted down like an animal."

Gambit snapped, "We're mutants cher, don't matter what powers you got or how you use them. We're different, somebody is always gonna be hatin' us or huntin' us." He revved up the engine. "Get used to it."

He was ready to leave when Rogue warned him, "You move a foot away and Ah swear Ah'll yell out for Logan."

Gambit turned off the engine; he slowly got up and leaned against the bike with his arms crossed. "Now why would you do dat, cher?" Gambit asked her. His voice was as smooth as silk, it made Rogue's shiver with excitement.

He stood up and got closer to her. She craned her head up to look at him since he was a good half a foot taller than her. She watched his eyes pulsate, to her surprise she could feel her heart go into the same rhythm.

He gingerly slid his good arm around her waist, "Tell you what. Why don't you come wid me if you're so worried about moi?" His accent made her skin cover in goose pimples.

She could feel his hand on the small of her back. Her tongue felt as heavy as her eye lids; she barely recognized her voice when she responded.  
"Okay. Ah'll help you."

Gambit smiled, showing off his dazzlingly white teeth. Even with all the bruises and stitches, Rogue thought he looked beautiful.

"And your boyfriend won't mind, cher?" he asked her, gently cupping her cheek with a gloved hand. He smile grew wider when she leaned into his hand.

"He's not mah boyfriend." Rogue could feel her heart skip a beat when she saw the spark in his eyes flicker.

"Bon."

Ororo was a bit scared as she brought a tray of food for lunch to Gambit's room. There was a good chance that he didn't remember her or maybe he was waiting until the moment was right to bring up their past.

When she got to his room she gently knocked on door. But no answer came to her.

'He's probably asleep.' She thought silently as she opened the door.

The lights in the room were still on, the monitors were off, the window was locked tight, the bed sheets were wrinkled, and the bed itself was empty.

All that was left was a single playing card.

The ace of spades.

"Goddess." Ororo let the tray of food slip from her hands. She dropped to the ground in distress. Her brother was gone.

Bobby dropped the spoonful of cereal in disgust, "Dude, what we say about the uniform?" Bobby groaned, trying his best to shield himself from looking at Scott.

They (Bobby, Kitty, and Emma) were eating lunch in the kitchen when a very pissed off looking Scott walked in.

Emma craned her neck to get a better look of Scott's backside. She wasn't even trying to act discreet.

"I must say his assets are really amazing."

Kitty and Bobby's face both cringed simultaneously. "Ew."

Scott rolled his eyes at their behavior, "I went into my room to find my jacket missing." He looked at Bobby. "_You_ know anything about that?"

Bobby looked somewhat offended and amused, "Why would I want something from the rejected noir season?" he joked with Scott, shoving a spoonful of cereal into his mouth.

"Well maybe Logan took it?" Kitty suggested.

Scott thought about that before approaching Bobby, but Logan didn't seem like a likely suspect "Why would _he_ steal my coat?"

Kitty shrugged nonchalantly, she took a few sips of her can of soda, "I don't know, you can ask him when he comes back."

Emma scanned the grounds of the mansion, "He's still on the grounds."

"No way, I just heard his bike pull out five minutes ago."

Bobby grinned as he watched the others try to figure out what was going on. "Let's see. A trench coat is missing along with a motorcycle." He ticked off the two things on his hand. "Now who do we know like those sort of things?"

"Gambit!?"

Bobby laughed while the three ran fast to Logan. He cupped his hands over his mouth and yelled "Bingo!"

Downstairs in Forge's lab Logan, Hank, and Forge were going through files, videos, and disks from the Weapon X project. The last time Logan had seen any of his former teammates was when they kidnapped him and the Hulk.

"Are you sure that Deadpool is not with them anymore?" Hank asked as he leafed through files belonging to Deadpool. Each piece of paper described the crazed assassin and the things he had done in the past. Hank shuddered at the thought of meeting him in person.

"Positive, he walked away from it all." Logan explained, looking through some grainy videos of his fight with Deadpool and Sabretooth at the Weapon X facility. "Maybe old Cornelius misses his pet project."

"But that doesn't explain how Gambit is involved in all this." Said Forge, "I mean beside the fact that both Deadpool and Gambit have insane jobs and have been cut open more times than a cow, what other link is there? How would those two even meet?"

Hank nodded in agreement, "Not to mention why Cornelius, if that is in fact who kidnapped Deadpool, would want Gambit?"

Logan fell back into a chair and sighed. He couldn't figure it out. Unless Deadpool and Gambit met up on a project or if Gambit was hired by Cornelius's crew…

There were so many possibilities in how these two could be connected. But did any of them make any sense.

"Logan!" Ororo ran into the lab out of breath. Tears threaten to fall from her shiny blue eyes, "He's gone."

The three men stopped what they were doing, "What?" Logan barked at her "How did leave?" Hank carefully led Ororo to a chair.

"I-I don't know. I went to his room to give him his lunch and he wasn't there."  
Just then Scott and the others came in.

Forge bit his tongue from laughing at Scott's uniform, Logan only groaned in disgust "Slim, didn't we warn you about the suit?"

Scott let out a soft growl before he spoke, "That's why we're here. Gambit stole my coat." Logan grinned in amusement ", along with your bike."

The grin turned south.

Hank scratched his head in confusion, "Now how does one drive a motorcycle with a broken arm and leg?  
Logan sniffed the air and let out a snarl, "Where's Rogue?"

No one answered. They all watched as Logan snatched his coat from the back of his chair and leave.

"Ororo, cover for me!"

Rogue kicked the tall lamp post angrily. "You slimly little git! How dare you?!" she shrieked at Gambit.

Being yelled at by a woman in front of a gas station while others watched in curiosity didn't faze Gambit at all. In fact he enjoyed this sort of attention.

After a three hour ride to Albany, Gambit's spell over Rogue had worn away. Leaving him to face a very angry southern belle.

"Now cher, you offered to drive. How could I turn down such a sweet gesture?" his smirk only made her madder.

"Ah didn't offer you anything!" she could feel the anger rising at his calm demeanor and the stares that the gas station patrons were giving them. She lowered her voice "Yah basically kidnapped me. Not to mention stole Scott's jacket and Logan's bike!"

Gambit looked offended, "You gotta admit cher, de jacket looks a helluva lot better on me den it did on dat homme." Her facial expression didn't falter a bit. Gambit gave up on being funny and sighed "You think I could kidnap you like dis?" he asked her showing off his injuries. Rogue started to notice he could move his leg and arm better, and that the bruises and burns on his face and neck were clearing up.

"Not only are yah a traitor, but you're a liar." She seethed "How long have you been faking your injuries?"

Gambit's mood shifted, he was impressed that she figured it out. "My healing power works _real_ slowly. Y'little blue doctor helped it go along faster when he patched me up."

"Ah'm calling cops."

Gambit watched her walk away. "And what you gonna tell 'em chere? Dey never gonna believe dat a mutant like you would be kidnapped."

Rogue turned around slowly. "What?"

He cocked his chin at her clothes, "You could have absorbed me back dere."

Rogue's jaw went slack and her brows went up high, "Ah never told you about my powers."

He chuckled and took off his leg brace as he leaned against a pillar for support, he bended his knee to see if his leg was fully healed. He did the same with his arm "You didn't have t'tell me. You're covered up head to toe. Eit'er you got some major body issues or you can't control your powers."

"How did you know Ah could absorb people? Some mutants were special clothing to control their powers."  
Gambit smiled, the stitches around his cheek and mouth were beginning to become undone and were starting heal on their own. "When ever you got close to your friends dey would flinch. Like dey were scared of you or something."

Now it was Rogue turn to be impressed. "My, aren't you observant."  
Gambit smirked as he put away the pump back into the holder. "Part of de requirements of being a thief, chere." He put his index finger to his lips, "Don't tell nobody t'ough. Old secret." He winked.

Rogue shuddered, either his charms were still working on her or she was beginning to grow fond for the Cajun.

"Fine, Ah'll just call Logan then."

Gambit quickly grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her around. She struggled against him, "Let go!"

He spun them counter clock wise so that she know could see the station above his shoulders, "I may have healing powers, but dat isn't going t'help me."

"See if Ah care." She hissed at him.

He wouldn't let her move an inch.

"Chere, be reasonable. You wouldn't want me being cooped up in some prison now?"

Rogue sucked in her cheeks, the thought of him rotting in a prison cell was bringing anything but guilt to her at the moment.

"For kidnapping? Sure. Why not?" she snapped sarcastically. Gambit gave a strong tug on her arm when she tried to walk away.

He cornered her; his whole body was pressed up against hers. "Dere are two ways dis could go." He whispered in her ear with his arms around her waist. To anyone walking by them it looked like a romantic gesture.

"I could charm y' again and dis could all be over wid. Or you could take off your glove and do what ever it is you're supposed to do." His lips brushed her ear making Rogue weak in the knees. "Gotta tell you t'ough, I wouldn't mind your hands on me."

Rogue's face twisted in disgust.

"Perv." She sneered.

Gambit didn't even care to respond. He just continued her options for leaving him. "Although if you decide to do dat, de woman behind me wid de blue sedan would pull out her phone to report an attack by a mutant. So would the two guys in the truck and the attendant."

Rogue peeked over his shoulder and sure enough the woman and two men were watching them with somewhat interest. Along with the attendant from behind the little bullet-proof window, who looked like she wasn't trying to watch them.

Rogue sighed and got on the bike. "Ah hate you."

Gambit looked hurt. He dramatically clutched his chest and pouted "Aw, chere. Dat really hurts."

"Doubt it." She started the bike's engine. "Where are we going anyway?"

"Tahlia's Lovely Tea Shop." Said Gambit, he adjusted the lapels of the jacket a bit uncomfortably. He could feel Rogue give him a strange look.

"It was Deadpool's favorite place." He explained defensively to a giggling Rogue.

"Ah'm sorry. But how could a guy with the code name "Deadpool" like going to a tea shop?" Rogue could barely contain her laughter.

"Wade is…he's a tres etrange homme." Gambit shook his head, not caring to explain any more as he got behind Rogue on the bike.

Rogue stiffened as she felt his arms go around her waist again. He was so close to her this time, too close for comfort. His chin was mere inches away from her shoulder. "Can yah leave _some_room, Swamprat?"

His laugh made her stomach churn, "'Swamprat', eh?" Rogue could have sworn she felt his lips on her neck for a quick second. "We gotta work more on dose pet names, _mon cher_."

About two hours later the two were standing in front of small quaint lavender painted building on a not so busy street. The flowers around the shop were huge, sunflowers as high as the door ran along side the building while a mixture of roses, lilies, and lavenders covered the front of the shop. Painted in front of the window in pretty blue/grey cursive was "Tahlia's Lovely Tea Shop."

It was late; the parking lot had only a few cars. Rogue looked around the lot and noticed that large chunks of asphalt were either missing or destroyed.

"Guessing this is where they took your friend." Rogue commented kneeling down to examine a gate that separated the parking lot from the side walk on the other side. The gate was sliced to oblivion and a part of the gate was missing. The other part looked ripped off .She looked up at Gambit who was running his hand against the sliced metal.

Deadpool loved swords.

He took a close look at the metal and noticed that it had some dried blood on it. "He was here alright."

Rogue noticed it too, along with the dark stains on some of the asphalt. "Yah don't think he was killed?"

Gambit massaged the back of his neck, thinking what could have happened.

"Gambit?"

He snapped out of it. "I-No, who ever took him couldn't have killed him. He can't be killed any way. That's one of his powers."

It happened all too fast one minute Rogue was talking to Gambit about what to do, the next Gambit was being pinned to the gate by none other than Logan.

The feral mutant was able to track the two on Rogue's bike and attack Gambit from behind. He was ready to kill him when the two had stopped for gas, but he wanted to know how and why Rogue was with him.

"Logan, NO!" Rogue yelled. Logan had Gambit a foot off the ground, his metal claws a speck away from Gambit's neck. All he needed was just one little swipe to end the Cajun's miserable little life.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't gut you like yesterday's fish." Logan threatened him.

Gambit was trying his best not to laugh. This scene was all too familiar to him. He wondered why Logan couldn't remember the first time they met. "Come on Howlett, you don't want to kill me. You owe me, remember?"

Logan's hold on him tightened, "What did you call me?" His claws nicked the Cajun on the neck; the exact same spot were the burn mark was healing. Gambit groaned in pain as the blood flowed from the blistering skin.

Rogue peeled off both her gloves and rested them closely against Logan's forearm. "Let him go, Logan. Now!" she warned him, her voice was strong and clear.

Logan didn't let go, he just stared at her. "You wouldn't."

Rogue shrugged, "You got two choices. Let him go or you'll be passed out before you even blink."  
Logan dropped Gambit without a warning and retracted his claws. He had to give some credit to Rogue. The girl knew how to make a deal.

She held her head high as he pulled her over away from the Cajun. "Does anything I say ever make it through that thick skull of yours?"

Rogue snorted, slipping on her gloves, "Could say the same to you."

Logan wrinkled his brow in anger; his heavy hairy arms were crossed over his chest as he waited for Rogue to recognize the seriousness of the situation.

"He just wants to find Deadpool. Shouldn't we care that someone is trying to kidnap mutants?"

"Wade isn't a mutant, he's a messed up science project created by Weapon X." He unsheathed his claws again, "Same people who did this." He was satisfied to see the fear and worry in her face. "You sure you want to find these nut jobs?"

Rogue looked between Logan and Gambit. Logan didn't know for sure if the same people who ran Weapon X were behind Deadpool's disappearance. "We can at least try to help him."

Logan sighed into his hands and ran his fingers through his hair, "What am I gonna do with you?"

Before Rogue could respond with a joke Gambit butted in. The cut on his neck was slowly starting to heal. "So de blade family behind dis?"

"What?"  
Gambit made a slashing gesture, "Blade family. Creed, Yuriko, Omega…dey all in dis you t'ink?"

"Maybe. Not sure yet."

Gambit sucked in his cheek and staggered as he stood up. "Look, I got a missing friend to look for." He shifted his eyes over to Rogue "See you oiseaux d'amour later." (1) The bitterness in his tone was obvious. Rogue could feel her heart give a little tug as Gambit started to walk away from her.

"Logan." She silently pleaded.

Logan gave up, "Fine. We'll help." He pointed at her, "If he puts you in any sort of danger I get to have his head on a platter."  
Rogue cringed at the bloody thought, but relented to the deal anyway. As soon as Logan gave the go ahead she caught up with Gambit.

Logan turned to face the scene of the crime and sniffed the air around him. He could barely smell the scent of dried blood, but that was all. He picked up a piece of the gate from the ground.

"Bub, what have you gotten yourself into?"

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**Wow. Thanks for the reviews :-) Hope you all like this chapter just as well. **

**Some spoilers from **_**Hulk vs. Wolverine **_**and **_**WATX**_

**(1) Love birds. **


	3. Chapter 3

Rogue was surprised when she, Gambit, and Logan stepped into the tea shop. From looking at the parking lot, you couldn't tell that the shop was full of people. From business-types sipping on coffee to the artists chatting away over raspberry and mint tea. The smell of chocolate mixed with coffee and lavender assailed Rogue's nostrils. She sighed, not only did the place smell wonderful but the place looked great. The walls were painted a deep crimson color with black vines and flowers as ascents. The place had comfy black leather booths and sleek metal/wood tables and chairs in the middle. It was modern and hip.

A petite Asian girl with short brown hair in a long sleeve red blouse and black slacks greeted them at the front. Rogue peered closely at her name tag, Noriko Ashida.

"Hi, welcome to Tahlia's this evening. Our specials are lavender and mint tea and our famous raspberry and vanilla scones." Her voice was friendly, but a bit forced. Rogue knew how dreary working as a waitress could be. After the explosion at the mansion she had to work at some seedy little bar near the city.

"Three for a booth?" she asked them.

Logan shook his head no, "No booths for us. We here to ask about what happened in your parking lot a week back."

Noriko squinted her eyes at the three, suspicion written all over face. She crossed her arms defensively and sneered, "What of it?"  
"You know what happened?" Gambit asked.

"No."

Logan and Gambit both looked at each before turning back to the young girl. They could both sense she was lying.

"Tahlia doesn't want to see any more cops lurking around here or 'checking in'." Noriko scoffed, "She just wants someone who will fix the damn lot. So unless you're here for that, I suggest you leave. You cops are no use."

"We're not cops." Rogue informed her.

"Oh good. Then get out!"

"Look kid. You either let us talk to Tahlia or we're gonna do a lot worse than who ever messed the lot." Logan threaten, his claws shot out and were only inches away from the girl.

Rogue was about to pull Logan back but was surprised to see blue electricity circulate around the young girl's hand.

"Try it." Noriko gritted out.

"Noriko, that's enough!" A Persian accented female voice called out.

All four looked to see a tall thin middle aged woman in a royal purple wrap dress scolding them. "What is all this?" she asked her waitress.

"They wanted to talk about what happened last week." Noriko informed her. Tahlia's mood shifted to defensive.

"Please, we have answered all of your questions. We need no more troubles here."

"Ma'am, please. We're not cops, nor do we wanna cause anah trouble. We just wanted to know if yah know anything about the disappearance of Wade Wilson." Rogue explained gently.

Tahlia looked at the three in shock. She didn't expect anyone would care to know about what happened to Wade. "You're Deadpool's friends?"

"I am." Remy piped up. Tahlia studied him a moment before remembering him "Ahh, so you're Gambit. Wade spoke very fondly of you." She motioned them to follow her, "Please, let us talk some where in private. Shall we?"

All four got comfy in Tahlia's small decorated office. "I was hoping someone would actually care to help find Wade."

"How well did you know him?" Logan asked. The woman spoke of Deadpool as if he were a kind gentle spirit. It was the farthest thing from the truth.

"Wade came here almost everyday. It drove me and the other female employees crazy, but he paid kindly at least." She commented in a teasing voice.

"Ever since the attack, police officers have been sniffing all over the place. Not caring to help. All they do is harass my staff."

"Are all your staff mutants?" Rogue asked her.

"Yes, as well as most of the people who come here. But it's always been peaceful here, no fights, no drama, until last week." Tahlia grew more morose with each word. "I give you my sincere apologies about Wade." She sniffed "The way he would talk about you, you sound as if you two were brothers."

Rogue looked at Gambit. The Cajun's head was bowed down; his hands were shuffling a deck of cards. "We are."  
"Do you have any ideas on what happened that day?" Logan asked her.

"No, all my security cameras stopped taping as soon as Wade came into the frame."

That stunned the three into silence.

"Stopped?" Rogue looked at Tahlia in disbelief. "It was planned then?"

"Looks like it. Someone could have been following Deadpool before they attacked him." Logan speculated. He looked at Gambit, "That means, bub, that we may have some unwanted visitors coming our way because of you."

Gambit ignored him. "De waitress out front, Noriko. She lied to us when we asked her if she knew anything about what happened."

Tahlia pressed her lips together and leaned back against her chair. "A few days after the attack one of my waitresses came back with lacerations around her neck along with a broken arm. When I asked what happened she said she had gotten mugged while riding her bike to the store."

"Can we ask her some questions then?"

Tahlia smiled, she was eager to know what really happened. "By all means." She pressed a button on her office phone. "Please send Carol in here."

A few minutes later a tall girl came in; she had dark bronze skin and curly brown hair. Rogue could see a long scar running across her cheek and another scar on her upper lip. There was still some faint bruising around Carol's right eye.

"Carol. These kind people want to ask you question about what happened to Wade."

"I don't know anything." The girl stammered quickly.

Logan sniffed the air while Gambit tsked loudly, "Little girls shouldn't lie, petite." He pointed a finger at her "Y'know something dat you aint telling us."

"I don't know anything." Carol repeated, this time she sound more confident.

Gambit shook his head in disappointment, "I know dat you know something. So eit'er tell me or de girl wid de skunk hair can siphoned it out of you."

Rogue punched his arm, "Yah jerk! There's no way Ah'm gonna do that! The girl has had enough trouble with out me taking her life away!"

"We all make small sacrifices Rogue." Gambit said a bit crudely for her taste. "I don't see yah doin' much "sacrificing", swamprat." She got between him and the girl. "If she says she doesn't know anything then she doesn't know anything."

Gambit and Logan looked behind Rogue to see the girl shaking in fear.

"How'd you break your arm?"

"Mugging."

Logan chuckled, "You're lying again."

"I'm not!"

"Carol." Tahlia stood up and grasped the young girl's shoulder tightly "If you do know something then you can help these three find Wade. Do you honestly want this to be on your conscience? "

Carol started to sob, "Can you send Trey and Aubrey in?"

Tahlia did just that. A minute later two African Americans came in, one was a tall wiry guy with thick curly black hair and small square glasses and other was a girl with bright hazel eyes and a short bob.

The two studied Rogue, Gambit, and Logan before coming in. "What's this all about?" Tahlia offered them to sit down.

"They're here to find out what happened to Wade Wilson." Tahlia informed them; she studied Aubrey for a moment, assuming that she was telepathically speaking with Carol about what was going on.

"You two wouldn't happen to know anything about that would you?"

Aubrey shook her head yes. "The night Deadpool got kidnapped Carol came back to the shop. She forgot her wallet."

Logan and the rest waited for her to continue.

Trey told the story next, "When she was leaving she saw Deadpool fighting a bunch of guys. She tried to help him."

"You attacked them by yourself?" Rogue asked Carol somewhat impressed.

"My powers allow me to manipulate and turn into fire."

"She attacked them, but they had some sort of rod that they shocked her with. It nullified her powers for a while."

Logan growled, "MRD." He pinched the bridge of his nose in agitation. "Damn it, they're the only ones that have a copy of the inhibiter collar."

"Actually, no." Aubrey piped up, "We've seen the MRD before. They came around here after Deadpool went missing. These guys had grey and black fatigues. They each had a large X emblazoned on the top part of their sleeves/"

Logan went rigid and sunk farther into his chair. Weapon X. It had to be them. He had once donned on the same uniform. The memories that he could remember of his days in Weapon X chilled him to his metal infused bones.

"How do you know all dis?" Gambit asked the two.

Carol hands started to shake uncontrollably. Trey gently wrapped his hands around hers to calm her down.

"She started to get nightmares about the attack. My powers allow me to take or distort anyone's memories. All that Carol remembers is that night is leaving and going home. There's just a giant blank spot in her mind."  
"She didn't want to remember, but she also didn't want to forget."

Logan digested what they had to tell them. "I think that's the most we're gonna get here." He shook Tahlia's hand "Thanks."

"I hope you find your friend, Gambit."

Gambit only wordlessly left the office with Rogue chasing after him. Logan gave a sheepish grin "I'll send someone to fix your lot."

"Much appreciated."  
Logan tipped an imaginary hat at her before leaving "Don't mention it."

Rogue grew more hesitant as she watched Gambit pick up a part of gate with blood on it. He seemed so distant and cool-tempered compared to how Lorna described him during his stay at Genosha. Granted he was trying to trick her, but Rogue was slightly amazed at how well he could hide his emotions. She had to give it to him; he had one hell of a poker face.

"Do yah know what you're gonna do next?" Rogue asked attentively, she could see his eyes glow deep red.

"Non," he noticed Logan coming towards him and sighed, running his hands through his hair. "I can probably take it from here. You two can go." He told them

"Wait a minute here-"

Gambit cut him off, "I got what I needed, I'm pretty much healed anyway. I can manage on mon own from here." He said as he started up the motorcycle.

"Actually bub, that wasn't close to what I was going to say." He pointed at the bike. "That's _my_ bike."

Gambit sighed and cut the engine dead, "Y'can't be serious."

"He is. Trust me on this one."  
Logan grunted at Rogue, but smiled just a bit. "You got two choices Gumbo. Either we're coming with you. Or you hitchhike where ever you plan on going next."

"I work alone."

Logan stopped, he felt as if someone slammed his head down on the cement. Images of a bloody room and dark shadows flooded his mind.

_He could barely see anything in the dim lighted room as he clawed his way out. Countless numbers of men began shooting at him but failed as Logan plunged his metal claws into their chest. He let out a howl of pain as something blew up behind him, taking out four or five soldiers who were trying to grab him. Something lit up in the corner, something blurry, small, and quick. _

_Wolverine growled as drops of blood fell from his claws to the floor. His ears could hear every drop, along with every breath his little visitor was taking._

"LOGAN!" Rogue yelled shaking him. She breathed out a sigh of relief when the color in his face came back.

Logan took deep calming breaths as the memory started to fade. He couldn't remember everything that happened the day when Cornelius changed him to Wolverine. But he remembered the yelling, the blood, and the tears.

Gambit was leaning back against the bike with his arms crossed. He looked disinterested at Logan. "Y'okay dere?" his smiled knowingly.

"Fine." Logan choked. A plan was forming in his mind, Cornelius had only one place he liked to call home for his pet projects. If Logan could bet any money, he would bet that that's were Cornelius would be keeping Deadpool.

"You know where to find him, don't you?" Gambit asked slowly picking up on Logan's emotions.

"Maybe, but we gotta move fast. Before it gets dark."

"Alright, question is now who you going t'be riding wid, mon ami?" Remy asked as he leaned against Logan's bike.

Logan growled, "It's _my_ bike. You ride with Rogue." Remy moved graciously out of the way so that Logan could sit "And I'm not your friend."  
"Of course."

"Rogue, you drive." Logan ordered as he started the motorcycle.

Rogue grimaced at the thought of riding with Gambit again, but with held any comments or emotions from showing. As long as the Cajun didn't try to pull a fast one like back in the gas station, _he_ was going to be fine. "Sure."

Remy grinned from ear to ear as he watched Rogue mount her motorcycle. "If dat is what de leader wants." Remy smirked.

Logan was ready to leave till he caught a whiff of something.

It was lust. And it was coming off of Gambit.

Logan snarled. "Gumbo, I changed my mind. You're riding me with me."

"Mais-"

"Now!" Logan barked.

A morose Gambit took his time to sit behind Logan. "You're not going to let me have any fun, are you?"

"That's the plan."

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

"Stop that." Ororo warned Scott over her cup of tea. He was studying her over by the sink; he looked as if he were going through a mental rolodex.

She gently set her cup down, "Scott, if you have something to say or ask me please do so now. Before I do something I might regret." Her blue eyes quickly turned white causing Scott to stutter before pulling himself together. He hated when she got mad.

"It's just that, you seemed to take it hard after Gambit left." He saw her twitch in her seat. "And I saw the look you gave him when he was out, you looked as if somewhat ripped your heart out." The gloomy tone in Scott's voice made her calm down a little. She knew that he cared for her deeply. But Ororo didn't feel like it was the time to tell Scott the truth.

He pulled the chair next to her and sat down, "Did you know him?"

"Scott."

"I'm only asking as a friend Storm, you just seemed so lost after you saw him."

Before Ororo could explain Emma called on them to join her downstairs in Xavier's room.

The group wasn't surprise to see the large hologram image of Xavier's head floating over Xavier's physical body..

"Hey Prof. X. How's it hanging?" Bobby asked uncomfortably, he could see the Professor's eyes turn dark.

"Emma has just informed that Lebeau came to you for help."

"'Lebeau'? "

Emma grinned, "That's our little thief's last name. His whole name is Remy Etienne Lebeau."

No one noticed Ororo freeze in fear.

"'Remy'?" Bobby chuckled, "Like the rat?" (1) Ororo stared daggers at Bobby and Forge as they laughed over the joke.

Scott made 'hmph' noise, "It fits."

Xavier didn't laugh instead he sighed in disappointment, "I was hoping it wasn't him. Though I wondered how he joined the joined the team in the first place, he was so adamant about not joining in the beginning."

Almost everyone in the room, expect for Ororo, looked at Xavier dumbfoundedly. It took a few minutes until Kitty was able to speak for the group.

"You-he…What?"

"You tried to recruit him? When?!" Scott asked outraged, he didn't remember anything about the Professor telling him about trying to recruit Gambit.

"It was a long time ago. I wanted to recruit him after what happened with-"

Ororo could feel her stomach begin to turn to one huge not, the tears were starting to sting her eyes.

"Professor, don't!"

Xavier only looked down at her in sorrow, "Storm, you know that I would never tell your secrets, but it's nothing to be ashamed of. It is the part of your life that you should have power over."  
Ororo sniffed, she hated those times in Cairo. "I know Charles, but I…"

"I'll only tell how I met the young lad."

Ororo silently nodded as the Professor began his story.

_Seattle, Washington…_

_Charles Xavier smiled warmly to the server behind the counter at the local coffee shop. After stepping out from the chilly rain, Xavier was glad that the shop offered such a warm and open atmosphere. He looked around; majority of the people were teens and young adults talking and bobbing their heads to Alice in Chains playing over the loud speakers. Xavier smiled, Jean would have loved coming with him just for this. He would bet right now during his absence from the mansion that the teens were plaingy the music as loud as possible._

"_Welcome to Lunar Café." The spiky red head droned, "Out specials today are our Columbian roast and beignets."_

_Charles was ready to order when a thick accented voice stopped him, "Dey aint as good as de one in N'Orleans. Trust me." _

_Charles turned around and smiled, "Lebeau. Pleasure to meet you." He stuck out his hand to shake. Lebeau looked to be in his late teens or early twenty, he wasn't as old as the students. He seemed to like the grunge style, as everyone else in the café his age. His blue flannel shirt covered his ratty black tee and his faded blue jeans were ripped and worn out. His coppery brown hair was long, his face was unshaven, and his eyes were covered by black round sunglasses. _

_Remy didn't oppose the handshake, "Shall we sit down?" Charles asked kindly, leading them to a small table by the window with their coffee in hand. _

"_I assume that you already know I run a school in Westchester, New York for mutants. It's –" Remy stopped him from continuing "I already know about de X-men. Pretty sure everyone does after de whooping de ol'man in de tin hat gave your kids." Remy smirked. _

_Charles set down his coffee coolly, "Then you know why I'm here then?"_

_Remy leaned back in his chair and scratch his chin "Yep, not interested." Charles raised his brows in surprise. The boy was sure blatant. _

"_I know what you're searching for Remy. Don't think I didn't hear what happened at the Seattle Theater last week." He could see the color in Remy's face drain. The young man's hands were shaking on top of the table. Remy quickly moved his hands when he saw Charles looking at them._

"_It was a slip up."_

_Charles took a sip of his coffee. "Slip ups can endanger lives, Remy."_

"_No one got killed!" Remy gritted angrily. _

"_I know, but what about next time? Are you willing to risk other's lives because of your fear?"_

_Remy looked at him, behind his black sunglass Charles could see a slight red glow. He could feel enormous mount of pressure on his head as Remy's eyes glowed brighter._

"_Ain't nice reading people's mind, homme." Remy grinned._

_Charles massaged his skull. He had to admit the boy was precocious compared to his students "You were projecting." He paused, trying to plan a new way of getting through Remy. "Your father told me why you came here."_

_Remy groaned into his hands, "He trying to convince you to stop me?"_

"_No, but I just wanted to know how you got into contact with your biological father."_

_Remy went through his jean pocket and pulled out a wrinkled envelop with a letter still inside. "He contacted me a few months ago. Said he could me wid my powers." Said Remy as Charles looked at the letter._

"_Nathan Milbury is your biological father?" Charles asked in disbelief._

"_You know him?"_

"_Not really. I know of him. He's much known in the field of genetics. Do you really think he could help you?"_

"_Dat's why I'm here. My dad j'st suggested I should meet you also. Y'know…to look over any options."_

_Charles sighed; he knew that Remy was all for 'fixing' his powers quickly. There's no way that he could convince him now. Besides, who was he to get between a boy and his father?_

"_Can't say that I'm not disappointed." Charles stood up to leave. "We could have really used someone like you on the team."_

_Remy's face went sullen. He softy drummed his fingers against the table, trying his best to avoid Charles's eyes. "Trust me, y'don't need someone like me." Charles could feel the fear and worries that Remy was projecting. _

"_I say differently. But just in case." He pulled out a small business card from his blazer's pocket. Remy took the small business card cautiously; he still wasn't a hundred percent sure about his decision yet._

_Charles titled his bowler hat. "Good Day, Mr. Lebeau." _

Storm looked around the room; she wasn't surprised at the look of shock on the other's faces. The others would have never suspected that the Professor had tried to hire a professional thief to join the team.

"Charles, why haven't you ever told us about this?" asked Hank, a look of confusion and aghast was still plastered on his face.

"I never found it necessary, seeing as he never tried to join the team afterwards."

Emma frowned, "I still don't see how this ties to Storm." Storm could feel the other woman's eyes digging into her.

"That is for Storm to decide if she wants to tell you or not."

Ororo bit her lower lip, thinking it over. She knew Xavier had a point; she had power over her past.

"Storm?"

Ororo sighed and sat down on the nearest chair. "He saved my life and almost killed himself while trying to do it." She looked at Xavier's hologram with a faint trace of disdain "That is all."

Scott twisted left to right in his chair, "So Gambit used to have a heart, doesn't prove to be true anymore." The ex-leader looked at Xavier, "He helped Storm get into the team. But let's face it, the guy is bad news."

"I agree, it's hard to trust anyone with such a checkered past like that." Emma commented.

Kitty choked back her laughter. "Yeah, you should talk."

"Gambit isn't truly evil, he never was. At this moment of his life, he's just confused."

"About what?"

Ororo crossed her arms over her chest angrily, "Mostly about his father. The man never treated Gambit with any respect what so ever."

Emma sighed dramatically as if she were bored and examined her nails, "_More_ father issues? Hmm, no wonder he and Rogue _clicked_ so well."

"Emma, shut up." Kitty snapped at her. Everyone looked her, surprised by the out burst. "What?! We were all thinking it."

Emma raised a delicate eyebrow; her voice was cold and scornful, "You were."

Scott didn't want to lie; instead he changed topics quickly, "What happened next?"

"After Charles brought me back here, Remy and I grew apart." Ororo state in a matter-of-fact tone. She rubbed her arms, talking about her past with Gambit chilled her to the bone. "Do you think his father is behind this?" Ororo asked.

The Professor pursed his lips, "I do not know for certain."

"Who is Nathan Milsbury anyway? I never heard of him." Hank asked curiously looking through a book of the most famous and most recognized geneticists. Not one page mentioned a "Nathan Milsbury".

Ororo and the Professor glanced at each other. Emma could pick up on Ororo's thought, her cold blue eyes widen when she saw the memories. "Oh My God! You can't be serious?" Emma shouted at her.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

"Dead serious." Logan answered a shocked Rogue. "He's set up in Canada, the only problem is now is where in Canada?"

Gambit looked at the runt with confusion written in his eyes, "I t'ought you knew where we were going."

"I do. Just not sure if they're going to be there."

The three had been traveling for 6 hours straight and were ecstatic to see an open gas station in the middle of nowhere.

"It would probably be easier if we were taking de Black Bird." Gambit suggested. The two X-men looked at him suspiciously, "What? You don't t'ink I know everyt'ing dere is about de famous X-men?"

"Out of idle curiosity Gambit, how much do you know about us?" Logan asked, his claws were itching to come out and carve this guy a new face.

Gambit could sense his emotions and smirked as he closed the top of gas tank of the motorcycle.

"Let's see how much he really knows." Rogue suggested threateningly as she took off one of her gloves. Much to her dismay Logan pulled her back. "Not yet." He whispered into her ear.

They were back on the road again until Gambit told Logan to stop. He pulled out his deck of cards, charging them while shuffling. "Gambit, put those-"

Gambit silenced Logan with a look, "Someone is watching us. And dey aint happy."  
Logan sniffed; he could smell gun powder and grease.

"This isn't good." Logan unsheathed his claws.

_Click._

Logan heard the trigger before Rogue could even warn him. "GET DOWN!" Rogue yelled at the two as sniper fire rained all around them.

Gambit charged and let out a wave of cards on the group of soldiers dressed head to toe in black with masks, night goggles, and head sets.

"Eight on one." Gambit smirked, "I like de chances of dat." He took out his staff and charged the end of it before slamming it into the ground.

The ground blew up from underneath the soldiers' feet, sending each one of them flying back. Gambit only had a second to blow off the smoke from his staff before attacking the soldier who was creeping up behind him.

Logan's claws were covered in blood already, whether it was his blood or his attackers, he wasn't so sure. Three more Weapon X soldiers came running towards him, Logan could feel their bullets going in and out of his body. The pain was blinding but it didn't stop him from digging his claws into the second guy's stomach and the third guy's pelvis.

The first soldier was ready to fire at Logan's head. His orders were clear, kill Wolverine and his X-man teammate and capture Gambit.

The man was ready to fire; his finger was right on the trigger.

"Guh-uh." He went down with a loud thud.

Rogue shook off the man's memories and grabbed his gun, finishing off four more attackers. Gambit knocked out three more attackers; he could feel one of the soldier's emotions. Lust and hunger.

It was sickening and twisted. He looked around to see a tall and wide soldier stalking Rogue. The man was waiting for the right time to grab her from behind.

Rogue had her gloves off and knocked out a good amount of soldiers with out tiring. She never felt the guy coming from behind her until he picked her off the ground.

"LET GO!" she shouted.

The man covered her with his gloved hands; he inhaled her scent through his mask and sighed. "You smell good enough to eat, mutie."

Rogue tried to grab him, but he was covered up. She focused her mind on Kitty's powers and phased away from the man. With an iced up fist she punched the man squarely in the face.

Rogue wiped away some of the man's blood from her face and shirt, the sound of slow clapping got her attention.

"Dat was belle, mon cher." Gambit complimented "Didn't t'ink y'had it in you." From a short distance Gambit could see Rogue's eyes turning red. He barely had time to duck before Rogue unleashed Scott's optic blast, knocking out the last three soldiers who were aiming for Gambit.

Rogue loved the Cajun's expression, shocked mixed with disbelief that a girl had to save him.

"Don't expect me to always save your life, Swamprat."

The three were bloodied and bruised up, fortunately for Logan and Gambit their healing powers would heel up any of their wounds. Rogue, on the other hand, had a nasty gash on her arm and bruises on her cheeks.

"Here." Logan let out his bare hand for her.

If Logan had blinked he would have missed Gambit flinch at them. Gambit didn't seem like the type of guy would get scared by a little power absorption.

Rogue watched her wounds heal for a few seconds, "What now?" she asked them. Weapon X was definitely on them now.

"Shouldn't we call the others for this?"

"And let more people get mixed in this mess?" Logan dried off the remaining blood on his jeans, "I don't think so."

Rogue bit her lower lip; the memories of one particular soldier she absorbed were still floating in her mind. She could see everything that he had done in his life. Flashes of weird laboratories and obstacle course came before her eyes. The soldier was man, Steven Kirk, forty-six years old and had served with weapon X since he turned twenty. His team's goal was to capture the mutant named Gambit and bring him back to head quarter so that they could finish what they couldn't in the past. To turn Gambit into the perfect army weapon, they were eager to get their hands on the "walking human missile" again. Rogue could hear and see everything. Their plans for Gambit made her stomach churn in disgust.

"Rogue? What's wrong?" she barely heard Logan call out for her. She collapsed to her knees and grabbed her head in misery, forcing the memories into the back of her mind. Between Kirk's memories and Logan's, it was a madhouse in her mind.

"They're gonna do the same thing they did tah yah tah him." She pointed wearily to Gambit. "They want to finish what they started with him. He a weapon x project too, Logan."

Logan's claws popped right when Rogue finished her sentence, he pulled the Cajun by the collar of his shirt. "You worked for them?! Why should we help you if they were your buddies?"

Gambit fought off Logan's hold, "I never worked for dem! I worked for _one_ of t'ier scientist. He saw what I could do and promised me he could help."

"With what?"

Gambit brushed the question off, "It's in de past."

Logan grabbed and turned him around again, "You're not gonna talk? Fine then." He pulled Gambit into a full nelson. "All yours, Rogue."

Gambit could only look at Rogue in disbelief as she slowly started to pull off her glove.

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**Is she **_**really**_** going to absorb him? **

**Really really **_**really**_** sorry for the late update. Good chapter, bad chapter or in between? Next chapter will reveal a lot of past secrets and **_**maybe**_** some ROMY. **

**Disney's Ratatouille **

**Thanks everyone. **


	4. Chapter 4

Rogue looked at Remy's face. The alarms were ringing in her to stop when she saw the fear in his eyes.

Rogue had to admit, she didn't know Remy well at all, but she could guess that he was the type that rarely showed fear.

She knew that once she absorbed him that he would be floating in her mind like all the others.

"C'mon cher, you don't want to hurt me now. Do you?" Remy asked sweetly. He could tell that she was procrastinating. "All dose people in your head. You really want me in dere?"

Rogue was about tell Logan she wasn't going to do it. Till she remembered what Lorna told her. Gambit was sweet and charming and oh-so-yummy to kiss. But that was just his façade, which was hard to break or to see through, underneath it all Gambit was a player, a traitor, and a _thief_.

"Rogue?"

"Ah do owe yah for _making_ me come here with you." Rogue walked up closer to Remy and titled his chin with her gloved hand. "Call it even, swamprat."

"NON!"

It was too late; Gambit felt her cool fingers on his forehead. He's vein bulged and his skin turned sickly pale as countless amounts of information and memories flooded from Gambit into Rogue.

Logan dropped Gambit to the ground just in time to catch Rogue before she could faint. "Rogue?" he shook her a bit. "Rogue?!"

_Washington DC- One week ago…_

_Remy hissed as the cold winter wind stung his skin; to his dismay his favorite trench coat did nothing to warm him up. _

_DC was packed with tourists and locals getting out of work, which made both driving and walking hectic. A few locals caught his eyes. Some would say nothing; others would just wave and smile._

_Even though the government was against mutants, the locals seemed okay with mutants. One guy even asked what Remy what his powers were; when he answered the guy's question, Remy was surprised when the guy said "Nice, wish I had that."_

_He snickered at that. _

'_Ain't nothin' _nice_ about it.'_

_With his meeting with Kelly at ten, Remy thought it would better to hang out at his favorite DC restaurant. Whoever knew Remy, knew that the guy had expensive taste, but to those who REALY knew him. Remy was just a guy who liked to hang around and shoot pool with friends._

"_Hey, Remy. What can I get you?" asked Tyler, one of the servers at Ben's Chili Bowl (1). "Same ol'. Easy on de onion t'ough."_

_Before Remy had the chance to ask how things were going his cell phone rang. He prayed that it was Kelly cancelling the meeting._

"_Bonjour."_

"_You're actually answering the phone? Remy, I'm flattered!"_

_No such luck. _

"_Nice to talk to you too, Wade" Remy smirked. "Down and bloody or are you still selling yourself for the highest bidder?"_

"_Oooh, the kid has jokes. Nice."_

_Remy chuckled; Wade was the one person he could actually relax with out having to worry about being blackmailed, kidnapped, and/or murdered. The two usually called when they were bored or needed help. Remy guessed Wade was calling in for the latter reason. _

"_Not dat I don't enjoy you're little calls. But…"_

"_I'm being followed."  
Remy leaned back in his chair, he looked at his watch hoping that Kelly would cancel the meeting. "What? Dose bar women finally tracked y'down?"_

"_Gambit. I think I'm being tracked."_

_Remy sat up straight in his chair, Wade was actually being serious about something._

"_You sure?"_

"_Positive. I found a bug in my hotel phone and a tracker in the sole of my shoe. Someone wants to know where I'm going and who I'm talking too."_

_Remy grabbed his food and left, trying his best to track down a taxi through the busy streets. _

"_Where are you now?" he asked, already fearing the worst for his friend. _

"_Albany, New York."  
"I'll get a flight out, just stay there and don't do any stupid." Remy warned while stepping into a cab. "Scratch that, don't do _anything_."_

"_If it's who I think it is, then I don't need your behind to get in it."_

_Remy bit the inside of his cheek to keep from cussing Wade off. He quickly told the driver to drop him off at Regan National Airport._

"_If it's X, den you're gonna need de help."_

"_I kicked your butt when we first met. I can kick theirs all on my own. Remember who you're talking to here, ol'chum."_

"_Wade." Remy cringed as the driver sped through a red light, "You said dat if dey ever got deir hands on you dat dey won't let you go. I'm helping."_

"_You're funeral, G-man. I'll be Tahlia's." said Wader cheerfully before hanging up._

_Las Vegas, Nevada-Eight years ago… _

"_MERDE!" Remy looked away as Maurice, one of Assassins Guild top members, neck get snapped by a man dressed head to toe in black. So far all five of his teammates had been killed off by men dressed in him the only one standing._

_It was supposed to be a simple mission for the two Guilds. The Thieves Guild was suppose to steal back a suitcase. What was in the suitcase or why it was so important to their client was neither known nor important to them. Their job was to steal it back from the Ruland's Casino and hotel, a five star trendy hotel for prestige mob member or con man who could afford a $200,000 per night standard room. The Assassins Guild was supposed to kill off any guards who stood in their way. The suitcase was kept in the Casino's basement, but it was empty. Nothing except for old broken slot machines and bad decorations. _

_Remy held on tightly to the light fixture suspended twenty feet off the ground, if any of the men looked up he was goner. He knew they weren't really the hotel's normal security. He had been studying their movements and fighting technique, they were mercenaries. Hard core and deadly to the bone. He knew that Las Vegas had their share of mobs, but never like this._

_As he watched the group of men leave he grabbed his bo-staff, extending it to full length while keeping his eyes glued on them. Six full grown men with biceps the size of snow tires against skinny scrawny him._

_How he wished he hadn't let Sinister mess with his powers now._

_Remy charged his staff full power and leaped off the fixture and slammed the staff into the ground right in front the men._

_The kinetic energy ran through the ground and within seconds exploded. Sending a wave of cement, wood, plastic, and metal into the men. The dust began to settle and through it Remy saw the destruction he caused. Blood and pieces of the men were everywhere; Remy covered his mouth and forced himself to holdback from vomiting. He pulled the collar of his shirt over his nose and mouth as the smell of blood became stronger. _

"_Damn it!" he threw his staff and collapsed to the ground. He hated this part of job._

_He never liked to kill people. It wasn't him. To him killing someone or watching them die didn't bring any type of ecstasy as compared to stealing. He wondered how Belle and the rest of the Assassins Guild dealt with the emotions of guilt and self-hatred. He didn't want to be the one responsible for the death of someone else. But it was a Guild rule: avenge your teammates/friend/family member's death at all cost. _

"_All dis for some damn suitcase." He chuckled to himself as he started to pull out pieces of shrapnel that were lodged into his arms, neck, stomach, and legs. He watched in silent amusement as the wounds closed up, all his scars from the fight were gone in a second. He was too busy thinking about what to do next that he never heard one of the men getting up until he felt something cold and sharp against the back of his neck._

"_Pretty sweet moves, buddy boy. But can you heal faster than I can cut you?" Remy recognized the man's voice. Out of the eight men, this guy was the deadliest one and most annoying. Remy had watched him off Quentin, a thief, with one swift blow to the neck with a katana. He was the only guy that Remy saw use weapons, guns, and his hands to fight and kill._

"_Gotta admit though, thought I was the only guy here with powers. Takes the fun out of everything…Hey! We should make a club!" The guy couldn't see Remy scrunch in his face in annoyance. Death was starting to look better every second._

"_We can make s'mores!" The guy pressed the tilt of the katana deep enough to draw blood, "Or maybe not. Killing you would be more fun." _

_Remy had had enough. He knew that there was no way he could fight off the guy. He might as well commit suicide. Slowly he raised his hands in the air signaling defeat. _

"_Make you a deal. Instead of us j'st fighting and all dat nonsense why don't I j'st pay you and call it a day?" he slowly turned around to see the man. He forced himself not to look at the man's face, which was scared beyond recognition. The man didn't look that much older then Remy; he was the same height and built as well. _

"_Pay me?" the man lowered his swords and rubbed his chin considering the options. "Hmm? Blood or money? Blood or money? They both sound so good!" the man smiled in delight and pointed at Remy's pocket. "Five million dollars and I'll go on happy as a clam."_

"_Five million?" Remy questioned nonchalantly as he took out his checkbook and signed a check for five million dollars. "Who should I make it out to?"_

_It took a few minutes for the guy to answer back, "Wade Wilson."_

_Remy loved the expression on the Wade's face as he handed him the check._

"_Seriously? I-I? You know what you can buy with five million dollars? You know what you can get with five million dollars?" Wade asked grabbing a hold of Remy's shoulders and shaking him. His eyes bulged out in pure delight as he danced around with check in hand. "I can actually buy Bea Arthur!"_

_Remy nodded in mock understanding "Dat's great." He replied halfheartedly as he inched closer to the basement door. Remy's fingers were right on the knob when he felt Wade pull him away._

"_Just a minute man." Remy felt the katana on his neck again. "You think I was born yesterday or something?" Wade waved the check back and forth in front of Remy. _

"_Seriously, there is no way this check is legit."_

_Remy was about to retort when the front door busted, fifteen guys dressed in sleek white suits each holding crow bars, bats, and/or chains looked at them. The men just looked at the two wondering who was going to make the first move._

_Remy looked at the stunned mercenary, "Guessin' you got hired by Monty?" Wade nodded silently, his brown eyes were glued to the men. "His brother hired me," he jotted his thumb at the men. "Guess dis is the ot'er brot'er gang." He sighed and stood up, wiping the blood from the back of his neck._

_He looked at his "new buddy", "What you say, homme? Y'take de guys on de left. I'll take de guys on de right?"_

_Wade smiled and pulled out another sword, "The bloodier the merrier, that's what I always say."_

_Undisclosed Location (3 weeks after Sinister and Remy met)…_

_The pain was excruciating for Remy as he blinked against the hallway's bright lights. His eyes were puffy and swollen, the top of his head was wrapped in bandages, and he was shivering even though the temperature in the building was normal._

_He wanted to find his dad, to see if the side effects were normal. With all the drugs that were administered to him during the surgery, Remy was having a hard time recalling things. _

_He limped through the hallway and was ready to knock on his dad's office door when he heard his dad talking to another man. Remy pressed his ear to the door; the cool wooden door did little to ease the pain. _

"_I'm actually impressed with this, Windsor. It's a fine specimen."_

'_Windsor?' Remy wondered. What the hell was his father doing?_

"_I'm glad you appreciate my work, Thorton. It's definitely a pleasure to be doing this again. It's been awhile since Weapon X."_

_Remy could feel the vomit coming up; he clutched his stomach and covered his mouth to try to ease the pain. _

_Thorton?_

_The name brought back a nightmare of a memory for Remy. He had seen the man get his hand sliced off by the guy who had almost cut off his head back in Canada. He could still hear the scream and the sound of metal claws slicing through bone and flesh._

"_Have you finished what needs to be done on Mister Lebeau?" Thorton asked in a cold steely voice._

"_Fortunately yes, I was able to spike his healing abilities by ninety-five percent. He nerves sustained some damages from the shock, but with his new power they will improve."_

_Remy dug his nails deep into palm, enough to draw blood, as he heard his father talk about him like he was a lab rat. He could feel the blood start to sip from his palms, but to his horror he saw the wounds close. No scars remained. Remy tried his best not to scream. _

"_I was also able to tape off his power. This way everything that the boy touches or sees doesn't explode. I suppose that's something to be thankful for." Sinister commented sarcastically. Thorton chuckled, "He has very impressive fighting skills, not to mention incredible agility. Can't believe he beat Logan's time in the obstacle course."_

_Remy could only hear tapping against wood for a few seconds. _

"_We haven't caught him yet, Windsor. If that is what you are wondering." Thorton sounded some what touchy about the subject. "Wolverine will be caught, and with your son, I believe we can find him faster."_

_There was a short pause._

"_He doesn't by any chance remember our feral friend, does he?"_

"_If you were thirteen and almost got your head ripped off, wouldn't you remember?"_

_Remy grinned, he was glad that Wolverine was able to get revenge. _

_Now if only _he_ could get revenge on his _loving_ father…_

"_When your finished with him, we'll bring him over to Weapon X and finish the rest of operations." _

_The sounds of moving chairs meant that the meeting was over and that what ever plan Thorton and "Windsor" had for Remy was about to begin._

_The rest of the night was all a blur. Full of dark woods, wolves, men with guns hunting after him, and heartache for a father who never cared. _

_Seattle, Washington (seventeen years ago)…_

_Remy could have cared less about how the patrons of Brasa were looking at him. Everyone, including the wait staff and the hostess of the five star restaurant were giving him dark looks due to choice of clothes. His ripped cargo pants and grey t-shirt with a skeleton giving the peace sign under his tattered black flannel shirt went against the restaurant's dark wood and classy décor. _

"_Can I help you?" asked the petite brunette hostess curtly. Remy assumed the woman was in her late twenties or early thirties. He took her hand in his and kissed the back of his hand_. "_Aucun beau femme tel que vous-même ne devrait travailler comme ceci."(2) He whispered seductively into her ear, causing the woman to have a fit of giggles. _

_Remy watched in amusement as the hostess pulled herself together. "Are you here to meet someone?" _

"_Oui, a Mr. Milsbury?" _

_The woman's grey eyes widened, she quickly scanned her guest book with her finger for the name. "Two for Milsbury." Her voice sounded almost as scared as he felt about the idea of meeting his biological father for the first time. Remy was surprised when she looked up at him; as best as she tried to hide it, the look of pity was palpable. "Follow me."_

_She led the way back to a small booth by a window and quickly left before Remy could thank her._

_A deep voice called out behind the menu "Remy, pleasure to see you again." Remy could feel his stomach twist into giant knots as Nathan Milsbury lowered his menu._

"_YOU!?" A few patrons gave Remy a scolding look as he quickly slid into the booth. "What are you doing here?" Remy seethed._

_The older man chuckled, "It's good to see you to Remy. My, have you grown. You look like just me when I was your age."_

_That had done it. Remy was ready to throw up in the nearest bucket available._

"_You-You're my pere?!" Nathan Milsbury watched with absolute delight as Remy let out a slew of French swear words. _

"_Are you finish yet?"  
Remy slammed his fists down on the table. "How?" he pointed a very shaky finger at his biological father's face. "You-you knew I was your son when you came to my dad, didn't you?"_

_Misbury didn't even try to lie. "Yes, I wanted to meet my son, to see what he was becoming."_

_Remy laid his head down on the cool table, which did little to nothing to help his throbbing head, "Dieu." _

_When Remy was thirteen, his father had recruited him for his first heist. His mission was to steal back journals for a Mister Essex. It was supposed to be a breeze, according to Essex, just follow the map and steal back the journals._

_It was easy, until Remy came face to face with a blood thirsty monster. The feral creature had almost ripped his entire head off. _

_In the end, after everything Remy saw in those labs, he destroyed the journals. He told his father and Essex that he couldn't find the journals. Essex reaction surprised Remy, the man wasn't upset at all, he was actually quite proud of Remy for trying to help him and for sticking up to him. _

_Remy picked his head off from the table, he could actually feel his powers charging through his veins, ready to charge "daddy dearest" for what he had done to him. "You do know dat I almost had my head ripped off?"  
Nathan smiled and raised his half filled glass of whine in the air, "Essexs, son, have long and lucky lives." He took a languid sip, "You made it okay, didn't you?" _

"_Yeah, no thanks to you." Remy said sarcastically as he crossed his arms. _

"_Watch how you talk to your father, boy." _

"You_ are not my dad!"_

"_Oh really? _

_Nathan used his power to levitate the dinner knife right in front of Remy's face. The young Cajun didn't even move an inch as the knife's sharp blade came close to his face. _

"_I do wonder who gave you your eyes." Nathan smirked smugly. _

_Remy felt the giant knots in his stomach tighten and lowered his dark frames. It was true; he was the spitting image of Nathan Essex. Remy felt as if he were looking at an older version of himself, it was so unnerving and twisted. Remy knew what Essex was. How could any woman in her right mind actually have a child with Nathan Essex? _

_Unless…_

_Remy cringed; the man was a mad scientist who wrote about dicing and dissecting humans. Maybe Remy was just an experiment gone wrong._

"_You aren't" Essex cold voice woke Remy from his disturbing thoughts._

"_Qui?"_

_Essex gently put down his glass, "You are not an experiment. You are the result of your mother and me having a nice night out during her birthday and a lot of chocolate strawberries." Essex smiled warmly, recalling the lovely memories._

_Remy swallowed his glass of whine in one gulp and massages his temples. "Dat's better." _

"_You should be proud." Essex smiled "Your mother was a beautiful astounding woman." He studied Remy appreciatively, suddenly Essex grew disheartened. He looked down in his glass of whine, "You remind me of her. You have her spunk and charm." _

_Remy smiled not knowing that it matched Essex's._

"_Really?"_

"_Yes. She was up for anything. Oddly enough; between the two of us, I was the rational one."_

_Remy arched his brows in shock, "No offense homme, mais dat's…disturbing to know." _

_Essex laughed for the first time, nodding in agreement with Remy. "I supposed so…but that was what made her beautiful to be with."_

_Remy tapped his foot impatiently, his gut was telling him to leave and never turn back. His father was right in front of him after all these years. But there were so many questions floating about. _

_He twisted the napkin with his hands underneath the table, not wanting to show Essex how nervous he was._

"_If you knew about me being your son why didn't you tell me sooner. You obviously knew where I was."_

_Essex casted his head down in shame, "When I found you, the first time I ever saw you, you were playing with a couple of kids. I knew I didn't have the right to bother you, you looked so content."_

_Remy gulped as he saw Essex's hand creep closer to his. Slowly he retracted his hand and watched as Essex tried to pull himself together._

"_N-No offense, mais…y'know?" Remy stammered awkwardly while Essex nodded. He tried to smile but it looked forced._

"_About your powers, I believe I have found a way for you to control them." He studied Remy's expression. Doubt mixed with fear, he didn't believe Essex one tiny bit._

"_Of course I can't get rid of your powers. But I can perform a simple operation in where you can have total control over your powers. No more explosions, no more headaches, no more pain ." _

_Remy was only half listening and half day dreaming about the day where he didn't have to grab a bottle of pain killers first thing in the morning. He had had enough worrying about when the next power attack would happen. He didn't want any more lives to be at risk because of his failure to control his powers._

_The deal sounded good but Remy couldn't forget what he saw in Canada._

"_Those men…one of them had blades coming through his knuckles; another guy looked as though someone had him skinned alive."_

_His voice wasn't shaky but his body was. He was angry as hell, first his father sent him on a death mission and now he wanted to help him. But at what price?_

"_I saw your work Essex. And I'm not interested." With his sunglasses back on, he stood up and began to leave._

"_Remy!"_

_He sighed and turned around. He didn't want to be a guinea pig; he didn't want to be controlled._

"_I promise you. All I want to do is help you. Nothing else, nothing more." Essex stuck his hand out. "I promise."_

Rogue pushed Logan away in fear as her hands began to glow. She saw so many things. So many bloody and dark things.

She feel her stomach churning as the images floated in her mind.

"Oh, Gawd!"

Logan pulled Rogue's hair away from her face as she threw up. He rubbed her back soothingly as the tough southern girl started to sob.

"You okay, darling?"

Rogue wiped her mouth and sniffed, she didn't want to tell Logan that she saw Gambit come face to face with him after he broke free from Weapon X. She didn't want to tell him that without Gambit that he wouldn't be her today.

She couldn't believe it.

Gambit had actually saved Logan!

She owed the man who had betrayed the mutant community for saving the man she loved.

With the help from Logan, Rogue was able to stand up.

Logan pulled off his jacket and put it around Rogue, trying his best to warm up. She was sickly pale, her lips were turning light blue, and her green eyes were now red on black like the Cajun's.

"I shouldn't have let you done that." Logan growled, angry at himself for letting his best friend go through Gambit's past.

He looked over at Gambit; the guy was still passed out on the dirt ground. Logan seethed, Rogue looked a bit queasy.

Without her permission, he lifted her bridal style. "I saw a sign for a motel that's less than ten miles from here."

Rogue winced as the pain from Gambit's power burned through her, but she was adamant about not being carried. "I'm alright, Logan. Y'can put me down."

Logan winced at the sound of her voice, "Great, you're talking like him how." He set her down, but had his hands on her shoulders to make sure she was steady.

"Are you sure you don't need help?"

She pushed away from him, "I got de man's healing power. Which by de way he wasn't born wid, it was given by Sinister."

Logan felt as if someone sucker punched him, "Sinister?! How would he know Gambit?"

Rogue shivered this time out of disgust. "He's Gambit's _father._" She walked over to Gambit and kneeled down to check how he was doing. Logan looked away as Rogue caressed his cheek and smoothed down his hair. "Now Ah j'st feel sorry for him." She stood up and dusted the dirt off her pants. "Yah think we can get him on the bike?"

Logan growled and flexed his fingers, "The bikes got destroyed. We got to walk the rest of the way."

Rogue shrugged, not caring much as Logan about their beloved motorcycles. "Can you carry him till he wakes up? He was traveling for a long time before Weapon-X got to him."

Logan snorted, "Do I have a choice?" He picked up Gambit, not caring to support his neck.

Medieval One Motel was a small three story motel five miles south from Kingston, Ontario. It was old and washed up, with grey bricks and iron gates giving it a "medieval" look. The parking lot had two cars and one big tour bus.

Rogue and Logan looked at each in anguish, it was three in the morning and both were tired, hungry, dirty, and smelly from the fight and walk.

The lobby was crammed with tourists who were either huddled around the information desk or payphones. They trio looked out of place with their clothes torn and covered with blood and dirt. Many gave them dirty and or confused looks, but the two barely acknowledge it. As Logan waited in line to get a room, Rogue sat with Gambit. Kneeling down besides him on the coach.

"Yah feeling better?" she asked softly.

Gambit opened his eyes and sat up straight. The pain in his neck surged through the rest of his body. "De least y'could have done was not let Logan carry me." He groaned, massaging the kinks from his neck.

He scooted over for Rogue to sit down, "Sorrah about that." She smiled when she saw the blush appear on Gambit's cheek. From what she saw in his memories, Gambit cherished being able to control his life. He never trusted anyone else to control what _he_ _owned_. The idea of someone else seeing all of his dark deep secrets scared him.

"Remy," she whispered, "Ah-Ah wanna apologize foah-"

Logan cut her off, "Someone got sick on the tour bus, so they only have two one bed suites." He pointed to the payphones, "With the way things are going I don't think I'll be able to call the gang."

Gambit clapped his hands together, "Alright den, so Rogue and I will take one room and de leader will have a room to call his own."

Logan growled in annoyance, "Nice try, bub. Rogue is getting her own room. You and I will be bunking together. They're out of cots so we're gonna have to share the bed." He gave Rogue her card key and left in search for his room.

The color drained from Gambit's face with every word coming out of Logan's mouth. Rogue watched in amusement as a pale and shaky Gambit sat back down and massaged his head. She coughed to cover her laugh, but it was weak.

"Um, he snores. And watch out for the claws when he gets his nightmares."

"Merveilleux, (3) I'll be sleeping wid Freddy Krueger."

Rogue had to admit the room wasn't as shabby as she thought it would be, she had stayed in rooms worse than this. The room was small, but cozy with a twin rod iron bed, ugly red and blue plaid sheet and matching drapes, one small television on top of a worn out desk and threadbare chair, and a spotty looking carpet.

Rogue covered her nose and mouth, the room reeked of ammonia and sure enough so did the bathroom with its hideous gold and wood décor.

After a hot shower and cleaning her clothes the best she could, she decided to get some fresh air. The night sky and cool breeze was a welcomed comfort.

"Salut."

Rogue jumped at the voice. She was hoping Gambit would be asleep by now.

"Where's Logan?"

Gambit winced, "Still waiting in line to use de phone." He had taken Scott's jacket off. His blue button down shirt, which was also Scott's, was open. Rogue couldn't help but let her eyes stray over his body. He had a nice six-pack, with faint scars across his abdomen and chest. He wasn't as muscular as Scott or Logan, but wasn't as thin as Bobby or Forge.

"It's not nice to stare, petite." Gambit smirked smugly.

"Um…" she cleared her throat, "Yah look better."

"Feel better."

Rogue smiled sheepishly and leaned against the rails, hoping that Gambit would get bored and leave or that Logan would walk in.

"We might as well talk about what you saw. No sense in beating around de bush."

She sighed, thankful that at least he was he one who started the talk, "Why didn't you tell us you saved Logan and Storm?"

"Didn't t'ink dat it had anyt'ing to do wid saving Wade. So I didn't bring it up."

"The Professor offered you a place in the X-men! Twice! Why did you just turn your back on mutants?"  
Gambit frowned and looked away in anger, "Y'saw everything. It ain't obvious?"

"It's obvious that you don't trust anyone who's willing to help you. That's why you didn't want us to help you after you healed."

Gambit gave her a dark and unnerving look, "Dat's pretty thick coming from a person like you, chere."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Rogue asked angrily with hands on her hips.

"It means dat de man who you call "leader" left you to fend for yourself when y'needed him de most. Every time he left you, y'did't know whet'er not you were ever gonna see him again. Everyone else can leave, but he's de man dat will always protect you; always see straight through you when you have on your mask. But he hurt you too many times, he broke your heart too many times for you to trust him fully ever again" Gambit's eyes were glowing brighter than the moon "You say dat I don't trust anybody? You of all people can see why den."

Rogue was slack jawed; he had hit the nail right _on_ the head. She had seen his past, and he was right. Of all people she really could understand where he was coming from.

"You're not evil though, Gambit. If you were you wouldn't have let the guards capture Logan, yah wouldn't have let Trask keep the collar, and wouldn't have let Lorna take back Magneto's helmet."

Gambit looked down at the ground silently.

"You're not evil. And you're not your father." She finished softly.

She looked at his hands, which where gripping the rails tightly, faint scars ran down his fingers, wrists, and arm. It was from when he couldn't control his powers, anything or anyone he touched turned automatically into a bomb.

"Y'know dere is a way…"

Rogue arched her brow, "To what?"

"To control your powers. You're lucky; at least y'can cover up."

Gambit watched Rogue mood shift from surprised to depress. Her bright green eyes lost it's glee at the mention of her powers.

"Y'don't believe moi?" he asked mockingly with his hand over his heart. "Move back." He told her, ready to jump over to her.

"No, Remy don't! You're gonna get hurt."

Gambit looked mildly surprised, "Cher, didn't know you cared so much." He was touched that she called him by his real name and not "Swamprat" or "Gambit".

"Ah don't, just want your blood all over me because you hit your head on the third floor balcony." She snapped quickly when she realized she had said his real name.

Gambit though could feel her emotions, she really did care.

"Watch out." He warned her.

Rogue closed her eyes and turned away, not wanting to see him get hit. The balconies were only four feet apart but the head room was a lot smaller.

She turned around when she didn't hear anything and came face to chest with Gambit.

"Gawd," she slapped his arm, "don't do that!"

His hands came dangerously close to her face. "Please, don't." she begged him. But he ignored her, he was eager to get closer.

"Rogue?"

She tried not to look into his eyes, but it was hopeless. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close.

Rogue felt lighted headed and happy while resting her head against Gambit's warm chest, his shirt proving a safe barrier. She inhaled his scent, a mixture of cheap pineapple soap (courtesy of the motel), grass, and a faint trace of Scott's cologne.

Her ear was pressed his heart, she was surprised to hear his heart beat match hers.

"Guessin' by dat sigh, you be enjoyin' dis." Gambit ran his hands up and down her back. "See dis aint dat bad, eh?"

Rogue couldn't talk, she could barely move. If it wasn't for Gambit holding her up, she would be a pile of jelly by now. His hands felt wonderful on her back, easing the tension and achy muscles with every stroke.

She looked up and fell deeper into his gaze; his eyes were half closed as he leaned his face closer to her. His gloved hands cupped her face, the heat of his hands sent shivers down her spine. She was drunk with lust.

"R-Gambit." She swallowed down the large lump forming in her throat; with all the energy she could muster Rogue moved his arm away. But his other hand was already stroking her cheek. She felt her body relax as he pulled out a black and yellow polka dot scarf, something he had filched from Kitty's room, and laid is against her lips.

Rogue's knees gave out as Gambit's tongue coaxed her into rhythm. It felt funny kissing through the scarf, but it didn't matter. She could still taste (mint and coffee) and feel (Oh, my!) him through the gauzy material.

Lorna had told her and the rest of the girls about kissing Gambit. The details were nothing close to what she was feeling for the Cajun thief now.

Across from the motel, a group of men watched the two through binoculars. A guy with fiery red hair and a stony facial expression pulled out a walkie-talkie.

"We have the targets in range. Should we fire now?"

A deep cold wheezing voice responded back, "I want Lebeau _now, _Cross. Get to it."

Cross clicked the walkie-talkie off and shrugged, "You hear him, boys." He pointed to his teammate with the bazooka.

"Fire."

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**There are more Gambit flashbacks that I will get to in later chapters, including when Remy first met Logan. Next up…Rogan. And a flashback scene to when Storm & Gambit and Rogue & Logan first met.**

**1. Best chili out there. **

**2. No beautiful woman such as your self should work like this**

**3. Wonderful **

**Thanks everyone.**


	5. Chapter 5

Cross clicked the head-set off and shrugged, "You heard him, boys." He pointed to his teammates with the bazooka.

"Fire."

"Captain, we have sight of Wolverine. He's leaving the premises, should we shoot?" a male voice crackled through the head-set.

Cross smiled, Wolverine was leaving his two teammates behind, attacking and getting back Gambit was going to be easy.

"No, let him go." He looked back at his men, "Once Wolverine gets some distance away from them, then we'll fire."

_Ten minutes earlier…_

"Are you sure about this, Storm?" Logan asked, agitated at the idea of Gambit joining the X-men.

"We talked to the Professor; he said that Gambit does join us. Honestly Logan, Remy isn't a bad guy, he's just lost. Like you."

Logan could feel his temper flare; he flexed his hands, hearing the metal bones '_clink_' together. Luckily for him the lobby was empty and receptionist at the desk was busy answering calls. "You can't compare Gambit to me, Storm. The guy is a traitor."

Ororo kept her tone even for Logan's sake. "Actually I can. Admit it Logan, you can see a bit of you in him, minus the charm and good looks." She teased.

"Funny."

"All joking aside, Gambit's been scorned by too many people, by too many mutants who claimed they were on his side. He's just looking for place to fit in. I think that's why it took him so long to join us."

"Either that or he feels guilty about trying to blow up Genosha."

Ororo sighed; he could picture the weather Goddess attending her plants. Something she often did when she felt stressed.

"Isn't that how you joined the X-men Logan? Out of guilt for trying to kill the professor?"

"I didn't betray my race-" Logan spat; he looked through the windows of the motel lobby, watching out for anything unusual.

Ororo cut him off, "I didn't say that. But when Gambit found out what Sinister had planned for him, he felt betrayed."

Logan grunted, not believing a word. He could have cared less about what Gambit had gone through, so what if he had been double crossed by Sinister.

The guy should have known better.

"Why did he even go to Essex anyway? Gambit doesn't seem like the stupid type to fall for that sort of stuff."

She didn't answer him; all Logan could hear was her steady breathing.

"Storm?"

"Sinister is Gambit's father."

He groaned and sunk to the ground, pulling the phone cord to its max. "Now I see why the bub is so messed up." He pinched the bridge of his nose, "He's really an Essex?"

"Yes. And according to his health records that Beast found, he is…" Logan could hear papers being shuffled, "Christopher Taylor Essex, born May 16, 1977 at Woman's Hospital in Baton Rouge, Louisiana."

Logan chuckled sourly, "Y'gotta love Hank." He rubbed his eyes; the day was really taking a toll on him. He looked down at his ripped blood stain shirt; he dreaded the idea of showering with Gambit in the next room.

"Promise me, you'll keep him safe." Ororo begged. Her voice cracked; she really cared a lot for the guy.

"Hmm, as long as he keeps his da-"

"Logan!"

He rolled his eyes; Ororo was once able to get his sense of humor at one time. "I promise I'll keep him safe."

"Good." She finally sounded assured, "By the way how is Rogue doing with him? She didn't seem so keen on him at the mansion after he woke up."

Logan looked at the clock mounted to the wall above him; he had left Gambit and Rogue for an hour.

"I gotta go, Storm. I'll you in later in the morning." He hung up quickly, after what Gambit did to Rogue back at the mansion Logan didn't want the Cajun anywhere near Rogue. He had always promised Rogue that he would be there to protect her and if that meant chopping off the Cajun's fingers, then so be it.

Not many people knew that Rogue was his soft spot. He couldn't see how Gambit was like him, but he could see how Rogue was just like him. From temper to conscience, the girl was the closest thing he had to family.

He could never forget the fight he and Rogue had before the mansion exploded, the way Rogue looked at him when he was getting ready to leave. He had made a habit of leaving her, but he always came back. Granted, he never told her where he was going or how long he would be gone for. He always made sure to come back though, to never forget about her. She was the first person he would greet when coming back from his trips and the only person he would care to buy gifts for.

It scared the crap out him when he had figured out Gambit kidnapped Rogue. He had promised her that he would be there for her more often after she rejoined the X-men. Unlike the first time, he was willing to keep his promise to her.

_Caldecott, Mississippi (Ten years ago)…_

_Wolverine ran through the dense forest of Grant Mary Park. He could have sworn he had seen the Sisterhood of Mutants running this way. He had them cornered back at their headquarters until one of them; the leader of the group, a tall lithe blond woman knocked him out with a grenade. _

_She seemed surprised to see him when he burst through their door. For a moment it looked like she recognized him, she even hesitated to throw the bomb. _

'Logan, have you found them yet?_' Jean asked from the Black Bird, the rest of the team of was looking for the members as well._

"_Nope, no sign of them." He stopped dead in his tracks when he heard whimpers coming from ahead. _

'Logan_?' _

"_Give me a minute, Jeanie." He got closer to the cry; he could smell fresh blood soaking into the ground. "Crap." There on the dirt ground was a teenage girl, he recognized her as one of the Sisterhood members. Her face was smudged with dirt and she had been stabbed in the stomach. Who ever did this to her wanted her to die a slow and miserable death._

_He knelt down besides the girl; she didn't look that much older than Kitty and Bobby. She was covered up head to toe in the sweltering Mississippi heat. Her long white and auburn hair was in disarray and covered part of her face. When Logan motioned to move it out of way, she opened her bright green eyes. Tears dripped down her face as the pain doubled, she was trying her best to breath but the pain was too much. "Who did this to you?" Logan asked, trying to find something to stop the bleeding. _

"_That little two timing b-" the girl growled between gritted teeth. She put her hand to the stab wound. "Ah'm dyin' aint Ah?" she gulped._

_Logan ripped the bottom half of her shirt, wrapped the cloth into a ball, and added pressure to the wound to stop the bleeding. "Yer gonna live kid,"_

_The girl's eyes widened in fear when his bare hand came close to her stomach'. "No don't!" But it was too late; she could feel his energy flow into her._

_A little while later the girl woke up, startled she shot up and almost fell down from the lack of energy._

"_Easy kid." Logan warned over the open fire he had created while she was resting. "You were really wiped out from that attack weren't yah?" _

_The girl looked around frighteningly; she looked down and patted her stomach surprised that the stab wounds were gone._

"_Yah can heal yourself?" the shock was evident in her voice._

"_Yep." He walked over to her and handed her a cup of water. "Impressive powers you got there kid." He stuck out his hand for her to take. "The name is Logan."_

_The girl looked down at his hand nervously. She wasn't worried, he was wearing gloves now, but she was scared of him. She had scene his memories. They were filled with blood, anger, and losses. _

"_You got a name kid?" Logan took back his hand when she didn't reciprocate._

"_Rogue."_

_Logan shrugged, not believing for a second that that was her real name. "Do you know you hurt you?"_

_Rogue shook her head no. "Ah don't remember much, your memories are mixing me up." She massaged her head, trying to clear away the memories that didn't belong to her._

"_Yoah Wolverine?" _

_Logan chuckled and handed her a mug of tea, "You can just call me Logan. What were you doing with the Sisterhood?" He decided he might as get information to where the others were._

_Rogue shuddered, "Ah-Ah don't know. Mah mama is the leader, we just wanted tah help mutants."_

"_Attacking the UN council doesn't help mutants, it just puts more pressure on them." _

_Rogue wasn't listening; her hand was still on her stomach. "They tried tah kill me."_

"_Who?"_

"_Regan and Clarissa. They thought Ah was the one who told you and the X-men where we were. They've been threatening tah kill me since mah mama told them Ah would be second in commend." She started to cry as she remembered the look of disappointment on her mother's face when she saw that Logan had found them. _

"_Ah-Ah always had mah doubts about them, but they were mah family. Yah know? Ah would never betray them. But the rumors kept spreading and the threats kept on comin'."_

_She threw her cup into the fire. _

"_Ah don't have a home anymore, no family, no nothing!" She cried angrily._

_Logan twitched uncomfortably, wishing that Storm or Jean were the ones taking care of Rogue. He didn't do so well with crying girls._

"_Hey." He grabbed a hold of her shoulder, "It's gonna be okay." She looked at him; a sad smile appeared for a quick second before she buried her face in his chest and wrapped her arms around his neck._

_Logan sat awkwardly for a second before reciprocating the hug. "You don't have to worry about them hurting you anymore. I'll protect you." He whispered into her hair. He could smell her fear and doubts; he hated seeing any young girl like this. _

"_Promise?" _

_Logan combed his fingers through her hair and kissed her on the top of her head. "Yeah, I promise." _

_Present day…_

Something didn't smell right. At first Logan assumed that some of the couples who were on the tour bus were enjoying their night. But the smell of lust smelt familiar. He crept into his room quietly, the smell of lust got stronger with every step, and he unsheathed his claws ready to slice the Cajun mutant into chunks.

"See dis aint dat bad, eh?" he heard Gambit tell Rogue when he got close enough to the balcony to spy on them.

He was ready to attack Gambit until he saw Rogue's face. She looked flushed and dazed. He couldn't tell if she was under his spell again, but she didn't look like she was fighting it if she was.

"R-Gambit."

Logan felt his heart drop to his stomach when the two kissed. It was the same pain he felt when Jean chose Scott over him.

Actually it hurt worse.

The feeling of hurt turned into hate within seconds. He headed out of the motel in search of the closest bar, not even thinking twice about looking back.

Gambit suppressed himself from smiling when he felt Logan's rage when he saw Rogue and him kissing. Logan didn't fool him one bit, the man clearly wore his heart on his sleeve. It was actually funny, Gambit always wanted to know what made the feral man tic since seeing him again at the ware house a few months back. He seemed so put together and strong, but he knew it was a front (granted, a very good front). All men had at least one weakness.

Usually, it was always a woman.

He didn't feel all too guilty about kissing Rogue. She needed to loosen up anyway, but he didn't like knowing that he was manipulating someone who was willing to help him.

Rogue pulled back from their kiss, her eyes were hazy with lust, but then turned hard when she realized what had just happened.

"Ow! What was dat for?" Gambit asked rubbing his sore cheek. The girl had a good right hand.

"That was foah tricking me yah low life swamprat!" Rogue screeched, she tugged on the ends of her hair, "What kind of trick was that anyway? You could have gotten yourself killed!"

Gambit grabbed her by her wrist and pulled her close. "Now cher, don't tell me dat you didn't enjoy dat." He smirked.

Rogue pulled away again, her mood had plummeted within seconds. Wordlessly she left Remy standing on the balcony and went into her room.

"Rogue?" he called out curiously. Slowly she sat on the foot of the bed, hands on her lap.

"Yah did the same thing to Lorna because you found her the best way to get information from. Yah chose her because she's weak, sweet, and naïve."

Gambit grew quiet.

"Ah'm not Lorna, Gambit. The only reason why Ah didn't let Logan hand yah off tah the MRD was because Ah didn't think he had the _right_ too." She pointed her gloveless finger close to his flinching face. "So listen here, the next time yah decide tah use me as one of yoah little Pons, think real good and hard about what Ah'm able tah do." She let her fingers drift closely to his cheek as a threat.

Gambit recovered quickly and gave her a charming smile, though his eyes seemed cold and distant. "Fair game, Rogue. Dey don't call me _Gambit_ for nothing."

"Ah know." Rogue mumbled massaging her forehead. She sat down on bed hoping that Logan would return soon.

Gambit sat down next to her, he didn't want Rogue to hate him. "Believe it or not Rogue. I still do need _your_ help. When I found out t'rough Kelly about your powers I knew you were de only person who could help me find Wilson de fastest."

He gave out his hand to her, "What do you say. Truce, mon chere?"

Rogue squeezed his hands with the powers she borrowed from Logan; making Gambit hiss in pain as a few of the bones in his hand could be heard snap.

"As long as yah never call me that." She squeezed harder until he was able to take back his hand.

The bones were quick to heal together; Gambit shook the pain out and glared at her. "You're a evil petite femme." He stuck out his hand again. "Truce, Rogue?"

She shook his hand without causing him any bodily harm. "Truce." She smiled teasingly at his little insult.

_Xavier's Mansion_…

Ororo sat alone in the kitchen wondering what to do next. Part of her knew that she could trust Logan to look after Gambit, but it didn't put her conscience at ease. She owed her life to Gambit after he saved her life.

Ororo didn't want to remember those months. She got up to make a cup of tea, she tried to hold back the tears but they were too much. Her hands began to shake at the thought of Gambit being hurt again. Ororo's tears fell onto the kitchen counter as a soft drizzle of rain could be heard outside.

_Cairo, Egypt (seventeen years ago)_

"_Stop that girl." Ororo heard as she ran through the crowded bazaar. Farouk would kill her if she didn't bring the jewels and money she owed him. She looked back to see the owner of the stall she had stolen from chasing after her, along with a few other men. _

"_Oomph!" she ran into something very hard and fell straight down to the ground with a loud groan. Looking up she saw the guy she ran into._

"_Y'okay, petite?" the man asked her, the first thing she noticed about him were his demonic eyes. Ororo stuttered for answer while he and two of the guy's friend helped her up. "She looks fine to me. Why were you running?" asked a tall blond woman. Ororo was scared to answer, her heart was racing to get home in time._

"_STOP THAT CHILD!" the cries were getting louder._

_The third person of the party laughed, "I think de petite is in trouble." Ororo started to run again when she felt someone grab her wrist and lift her up. _

"_Let-Let me go!"  
The owner of the stall twisted her wrist, "No one steals from my stall!" the man cried. Ororo saw the man's hand coming down and was ready. What she heard next was painful; Ororo opened her eyes to see the man on the floor crying in pain. His whole arm looked singed._

"_Aint nice t'pick on little girls, homme." Ororo watched in awe as the guy she ran into twirled his bo-staff, attacking any of the men who came near him._

_Before she could get up and help, the blond woman picked her up. "Trust me, y'don't want to be in the middle of this."_

_Ororo could only look on from behind the girl's shoulder as the guy charged the bo-staff and slammed it into the ground. _

"_He needs help!" Ororo kicked and screamed as she watched the block obliterate. Once the three were at a safe distance away from the scene the blond woman put Ororo down. "What she steal?" _

_Ororo's blue eyes widened in shock. The man was still alive! He was unscathed and looked pretty pleased with himself._

"_Dat was quick." Commented the guy's friend. _

"_What can I say Henri? When you got it, you got it."_

_Henri slapped the man on the back, "Yeah, you got something alright." All three pairs of eyes were on Ororo now. The little white haired girl sunk deeper into the ground, afraid of being so far from home and Farouk. The man would surely beat her if he knew where she was._

"_We're not gonna hurt you, petite." The man gave out his hand to her, but she only shrunk back in fear. His eyes reminded her of the monster that had been haunting her dreams since her parent's deaths._

"_I'aint gonna bite, chere." he kneeled down a bit so that they were at eye level. "My name's Remy. What's your name?"_

_Ororo looked at his hand, she was scared of him. But he did save her from the mob. "You saved my life. Shukren." She mumbled trying her best to slink away before the mob could find her again._

_Before she could move more than three feet away Remy grabbed her wrist. "Y'cant go runnin' off like dat.Y'could get- AURGH!"_

"_REMY!" _

_Ororo and the blond woman let out a shrill scream as a small knife pierced Remy's shoulder. _

"_Got him!" A few members from the mob had been able to track them down. Each men were covered in blood and dirt, revenge was written across their faces as each pulled out their weapon of choice._

_Another knife went flying towards Ororo, but Remy dodged right in time to take it in the leg._

"_STOP IT!" Ororo cried, she could feel the guilt wash over her. Remy was innocent in all this and yet he was getting hurt trying to protect her. "NO MORE!" Remy, Henri, and Merci looked on in amazement as the little girl's blue eyes went white. The blue skies of Cairo went dark and lighting began to strike around the mob. The men began to run and cry in fear as Ororo managed to hit a few of them with lightening bolts. Ororo could feel herself weaken, she had never used her powers to do this extent. _

_As soon as the mob and the sky cleared Henri lifted her into his arms. "Good to know dat you aint de only mutant here, Remy." _

_Ororo could have slapped herself, of course Remy was a mutant! _

"_Guess we got ourselves a little stormy witch here." Remy ruffled her hair and smiled. Ororo gently lifted her hand to his wounded shoulder. "I'm sorry."_

"_I suffered through worse. Stormy."_

_Ororo blushed at the nickname._

_From then on Ororo would spend time with Remy, his brother and his sister-in-law when she wasn't on Farouk's orders. He became an older brother to her, helping he learn how to control her powers and helping her steal what she need to please Farouk. Remy didn't like it; he had learned that Farouk was abusing her, physically and emotionally with his powers. He had tried numerous amounts of time to convince her to leave but Ororo argued that she couldn't leave him, that he was the only one to care for her._

"_I care, chere. What he's doing to you isn't right." Remy told her when he noticed the bruises covering her thin arms. _

"_Farouk protects me." _

_Remy sighed as he put a bag of ice on her arm. Ororo couldn't look into his eyes, they were burning red now. "And who's gonna protect you from Farouk?"_

_Ororo bit her lip to stop from crying._

_One night Merci crept into Remy's room, wakening him up to tell him that he needed to come into the kitchen. It was an emergency._

_Remy rushed into the kitchen. What he saw broke his heart into dust. There sitting in the middle of the kitchen table was Ororo. The girl's nose was broken and her lips were busted right in the middle. The back of her shirt was soaked in blood from the wound's Farouk's whip made. Ororo's beautiful bright blue eyes were now blood shot and the skin around them black and blue. _

_She cried when she saw the look Remy was giving her. "Please, Stormy. Please don't cry." Remy begged as he hugged her, he combed his fingers through her hair while Merci went to find the first aid kit. _

"_Gambit?"_

"_Hmm?"_

"_I don't want to be scared anymore."_

Ororo wiped away the tears with a few tissues off the counter to clean herself up. It seemed like forever ago when she last saw Remy.

"There's more to that story, I am assuming." The sound of Emma's voice started Ororo, when Emma noticed this she apologized sincerely.

"You have no right spying on my memories, Frost."

Emma smiled sadly, "I really wasn't. You were projecting your thoughts. Any telepath within miles from here could hear your thoughts. I wanted to come and check on you when I heard the rain." She led Ororo to the kitchen table and made her sit down. "I'm truly sorry for what you went through. It's not right."

Ororo sighed, she rested her head on the cool wooden table as the memories of Farouk and Remy flooded her mind. Emma set a cup of herbal tea in front of the weather goddess before sitting down herself. "How did the Professor become involved with all this if Gambit was the one who found you?"

Ororo bit her lip, it was the last time she ever saw Gambit again. "Gambit called him to Cairo for a favor…"

_Remy never thought he would happy to see Charles Xavier, especially after what had happened in Seattle._

"_Remy, it's good to see you again." Charles greeted as he stepped into the Guild's apartment. _

"_Thanks for making de trip, Professor. Didn't actually think you would come t'ough." Remy said while he led the older man into the kitchen for drinks._

"_Actually I really don't know exactly why I'm here. You sounded rushed over the phone." Charles graciously accepted the cup of iced mint tea from Remy. _

"_I have a young friend who is a mutant."  
"What are her powers?"_

"_She can control the weather. At first she was a bit shaky with them, but I was able to help."_

"_You?" Charles asked dubiously. Remy gave the older man a 'don't go there' look. _

"_Anyway, her parents died when she was little and now she lives wid a man who beats her. I caught him a few times using his powers to abuse her. He creates these nightmares to make her weak."_

"_She hasn't tried to leave him?"_

"_Nope, he has some sort of power over her. He doesn't treat her like a daughter, more like a –" Remy struggled with the word. _

"_Slave?"_

_Remy hung his head "Oui," he rubbed his face tiresomely; "I was hoping you could take her in. She can't stay in New Orleans wid me"_

"_Why not?" _

"_I love mon family Professor. But de lives we live? I don't want her to go t'rough dat all. I want her to grow up wid out having to look over her shoulder all de time."_

_Charles looked at the young man intently. He sounded so sincere and earnest about the situation. _

"_I would be happy to accept her into the school. When can I meet her?"_

_Remy smiled and shot out of his seat excitedly, "Right now. Stormy! Got someone in here I want you t'meet."_

_The grin on Charles face went away as soon as he saw the bandaged young girl. She looked so frail and scared. Charles couldn't believe it, how could anyone treat someone, especially a young little girl, so cruelly? _

"_Hello there." _

_Ororo hid behind Remy, "She's been a wreck for the past few days. She needs help."_

"_And I intend to help. But first tell me everything you know about this Farouk." _

Emma leaned back with her legs crossed in the chair, absorbing what Ororo had just told her. It didn't make sense why Gambit never joined the team; he had a good conscience.

"Does he feel that guilty about his father's actions that he automatically just casts himself as 'no good'?"

Ororo sipped her tea, thinking her answer over. "Yes." She set the cup down gently, "Gambit has never seen himself as innocent or good. He doesn't have a very high opinion of himself, nor does he trust himself."

"What do you mean?"

"Gambit punishes himself for every little thing that he has ever done wrong. He believed that so many died because of him and his powers that he actually went and signed up for surgery in order to stop his powers. At one point he actually sacrificed himself after he killed a man in heist gone wrong."

Emma tapped her finger on her chin thoughtfully, "He believes that he was born evil."

Ororo craned her head to the side and lifted her glass in congratulations to Frost for figuring it out. "Correct. Gambit's not the one to follow Tabula rasa; he thinks he deserves what he gets. Henri, his adopted brother, told me once that Gambit blamed himself for his biological mother's death. He thought she would still be alive if he weren't born. You don't want to know what kind of punishment he created for himself for that."

"Why so much guilt?"  
Ororo stared into her cup of tea, trying to find any sort of energy to retell Gambit's story."The day Gambit's power activated he accidently blew up a shopping center. Ninety-two people died that day; he never forgave himself for it." Merci told her about what happened after Remy made a big fuss about being able to control her weather powers properly.

"It makes you wonder though. What made Gambit feel so guilty that he wanted to go find Deadpool." Emma mused.

Ororo thought it over too, why would Gambit want to find Deadpool so much? She knew that Gambit was a loyal friend, but Gambit seemed so _rushed_ to find Deadpool.

"You-you don't think he would-?"

Emma spat out her coffee after reading Ororo's thoughts. "Oh come off it Storm, who is that stupid to do that?"

Ororo crossed her arms, "Do not forget that we are talking about Gambit." She said in a matter-of-fact tone.

Emma set her cup down slowly, "I'll call Logan and tell him to be on guard."

_Medieval One Motel…_

The question was eating up Rogue inside; she tapped her foot impatiently against the wood floor in order to keep her mind busy on anything else.

Gambit bit a back a laugh; he already knew what she wanted to ask.

"Y'can ask me, Rogue. It's not really a personal question."

Rogue rolled her eyes; he sure seemed so sure about what she was going to ask him. He leaned back on the chair next to the dresser, tilting back and forth with his signature smirk on his face.

"Y'want to know why I didn't tell Logan about saving his life back den?"

Judging by the look on her face, Gambit guessed he got the question right.

"Y'want t'know?"

She shook her head 'yes'.

"I didn't think it was de right time. I had a job t'do and telling Logan dat I was in de Weapon X facility when he broke out would have delayed de job. He would have wanted t'know why I was dere and why I would consider breaking in de first place."

Rogue bit the inside of her cheek; she thought he would have made something up. But it sounded like something that would happen with Logan.

She got up from the bed and walked towards him, "Ah can get not telling Logan, but why didn't you join the team? We could have used someone lahke yah."

Gambit looked away from her, afraid of the pity she had for him; his eyes were glowing in anger. The team didn't need someone like him to join and hold them back. He knew the X-men didn't deserve someone with so much baggage and bad history behind them.

"You're not evil, Remy. Far from it."

Gambit cocked his head to the side and smiled, "Y'calling me by my first name." he put his hands mockingly over his heart "Rogue, I'm touched."

"Don't get used to-"

_BOOM! _

The explosion threw them off their feet and into the hallway. Bits of glass and wood embedded their skin as the whole motel shook.

The whole hallway was on fire as countless numbers of tourists ran and stumbled down the emergency exit, a few stopped to help those in need of care. The motel's emergency water system went on, soaking the entire fall and squashing out the fire. Once the fire and smoke died down a bit, a few passerby noticed two singed and bloody bodies. Once of them got close to examine the bodies.

"God, they really got the brunt of it." A male guest exclaimed as another guest got in closer to help move the bodies. What they didn't expect was the bodies to move on their own. They screamed "Mutant" and dashed for the exits leaving Gambit and Rogue to heal on their own.

The rooms and hallways were still on fire, the weak sprinkler system was no match for the fire raging from room to room. Rogue looked around the hallway and cursed when she noticed that the fire extinguishers were gone from their casing.

"Got anyt'ing for dis?" Gambit coughed, choking on the thick black smoke, he could barely see his own hands.

Rogue tried to scrunch down, the pain in her hip was excruciating. She winced, the thick smoke made it hard to see, but she could feel something cold and hard sticking from her hip. She held her hand there.

"Sure do." Using Bobby and Ororo's powers, Rogue was able to eliminate the fire and clear away the smoke.

The whole floor was a wreck. Everything was burnt and fried to a black charcoaled crisp. A few guests poked their heads out of their rooms with towels over their nose and mouth, once they figure out what Gambit and Rogue were they bolted. Not even giving them thanks for saving them.

"Any guesses at who might have done dis?" Gambit picked out the shrapnel from his knee. His hair was fried and he had second and third degree burn on his face, chest, and stomach. The same with Rogue, with the smoke now gone she knew what exactly was bothering her. She had a large piece of the iron bed post jammed into her hip. In one quick swift motion she pulled it out, letting out a chain of swear words as the wound began to heal slowly on its own.

She held up the bloody rod and pointed it to a flying unmarked black helicopter. "Ah'm gonna guess it was them." The helicopter hung in the air, preparing for its next attack. It turned around with the door opened. Rogue could see two figures pointing rifles at them, ready to fire to bring them down.

"Can yah charge a helicopter?"

"Yeah." He patted the remains of his shirt, "I got no cards t'ough. Doubt I can find anything here light enough t'throw."  
"We don't need any cards."

Gambit saw the look on her face; he stepped back in fear of what she might do. "You wouldn't."

She grabbed him by the back of whatever was left of his clothes and swung him around before throwing him into the direction of the helicopter. He missed the open door, but was able to grab hold of the helicopter's landing skid.

Pulling himself up, he saw the surprise faces of the soldiers a board and gave them a wry smile. He was only a foot away from them; it gave them the perfect chance to kill him.

One cocked his gun and pointed it straight at Gambit forehead. The Cajun although didn't seem to mind. He simply kept his eyes on the barrel of the gun and smirked.

"Nice chopper." He winked, the soldiers backed away as the whole helicopter turned magenta. The pilot cursed as too much energy began to over load the system's control. Sparks began to fly everywhere from the cockpit, creating a small fire

Gambit gave the men a two figure salute. "Adieu." He let go, falling back as the chopper exploded above him. The night sky illuminated in a burst of colors from the explosion as pieces of the helicopter began to rain down.

Gambit saw three of the soldiers had jumped out in time; the soldiers were sailing gently to the ground. Gambit flinched; he had no means of support and was falling fast. His healing power would cover him, but no doubt the impact was going to _hurt_.

To his surprise though he found himself floating back into the ruined motel room. Once safetly on the ground, he noticed Rogue's eyes glow bright purple. He was impressed and angry.

"Y'have telekinesis!? Why did you t'row me up dere den?" he exclaimed angrily. His chest could barely contain his heart which was beating wildly from having to worry about flying _into_ the helicopter's sharp flying blades.

Rogue smirked, "Big baby." She walked to the edge of where the balcony was and looked around. "Ah don't see any of them."

Gambit looked down and noticed the small crowd of people looking up and pointing. At first he thought they were looking at them and then he heard it. A soft swishing noise made him looked up.

"_Merde_!"

He pulled Rogue away as more soldiers jumped into their room. There were twenty of them; each had a rifle pointed to the two mutants. Slowly with one hand, each soldier unattached the carabiners connecting them to more helicopters hovering up the motel.

They were dressed similarly to the soldiers who attacked them; thick black bullet proof vest and fatigues, black leather gloves, and heavy combat boots. Their faces were obscured behind black helmets, only their eyes showed through the green tinted eye shields.

Gambit stepped in front of Rogue with his arms out to his side; he scanned the room for anything he could use as a weapon. He was sure though that if he moved an inch that the men wouldn't hesitate to kill.

One guy, tall and wide, stepped forward with taser in hand. Another guy, this one wiry compared to the others, laughed at him. It sounded so cold and haunting.

And familiar.

"_Christopher_. Long time no see buddy." He winked and inclined his head towards Rogue "See yah got you a little treat. Nice."

"Wade?" Gambit moved closer not thinking about the men who pointing their gun right at him. He felt Rogue clutch his arm, scared to death of what the men might.

"Gambit, Gambit, Gambit." The man with the taser took of his helmet; he had a beefy freckled face, beady cold grey eyes with, and scars going across his face.

Three long parallel scars.

It was the same guy who he attacked to help Wolverine escape from Weapon X.

"Long time in deed." The man snarled, he had his eyes on Rogue and puckered his lips. Gambit automatically became tensed, he wanted to slug the man for that, but didn't want Rogue to get hurt.

"What do y'want?"

The man waved back on forth, building the suspense up. "Simple really. We need to finish what we started."

Rogue watched Gambit turn from a flippant cunning womanizer thief to a protective caring hero.

"Over my dead body."

The man bit his lip, holding back his smile. "Unfortunately, we can't risk that." Rogue's grip on Gambit tightened as the guns became directed to her.

"NON!" The fear in Gambit's voice was palpable, he felt like slapping himself for getting Rogue in this situation.

"Too late."

Wade stood behind Rogue and tasered her. Gambit stood rigid in fear as he watched Rogue fall to the ground, her scream was blood curling as one hundred and twenty watts of electricity went through her. Her body began to spasm violently as she lay on the floor.

"STOP!" Gambit yelled, picking up the closest iron rod and slugging it at his friend. Wade dropped the taser and held his injured hand close, the jagged rod penetrated through the glove, cutting in deep. "Dude!" Wade shook his head in disappoint. "Bad Gambit! Very bad Gambit! You have to be punished now." He pouted in a fiendish girly voice.

Another man shot Rogue with a taser again causing her to go into anther round of spasms; her screams became gurgled as the pain in her muscles intensified.

Gambit quickly pulled the probes of her. "I'll go, peacefully." He sighed, "J'st, s'il vous plait, don't hut her." He knelt down beside Rogue; her breathing was heavy but even.

Gambit's heart turned to dust as tears cascaded down Rogue's cheeks. "Don't." She whimpered, she knew that he was only going because he felt guilty. Gambit's face was emotionless as he kissed her softly on the lips, long enough for her to absorb his healing powers. "I'm sorry, Rogue." He pried his hand away from her, praying quietly that she would be safe once they left.

Rogue watched helplessly as Gambit walked with the soldiers with his hands cuffed behind him.

_Meanwhile…_

The bike that Logan had stolen to get to the nearest bar, a fifteen minute drive, was a beauty. A crimson red Yamaha Roadliner Midnight with aluminum frame, chrome wheels and maximum torque power. He stared at the bike like a love sick pup, sorely missing his own destroyed bike.

The bar, a seedy little biker bar called the _Black Heart, _had only a few patrons drinking and playing pool. The bartender, a brooding ex-biker named Kyle with giant tattoos running down his arms and bald head, didn't seem to mind the slow business or chatting up with Logan about the bikes and women from their past.

Logan was on his sixth bottle of beer, it didn't get him drunk just buzzed. "Hard night?" Kyle asked. Logan gave a little chuckle accepting a new cold bottle from him.

"Y'can say that." He stopped when he heard a explosion from the distance, "Did you hear that?"

Kyle listened intently for bit, "Hear what?"

Logan got up; he stumbled over to the door and swung it open.

_BOOM!_

Kyle and the others ran to see the helicopter explode giving off an array of wild colors in the sky. Kyle gave a low whistle, "Glad I aint them."

Logan grabbed the keys to the bike off the counter and jumped on his bike.

'_Logan?_

He looked around, the voice sounded familiar. "Frost?"

'_Weapon X is at the motel.'_

Logan revved the engine and peeled off, mentally cursing himself for leaving Rogue alone. The bike couldn't go fast enough for him when he heard her scream. Unconsciously he unsheathed his claws, imagining tearing out the hearts of the Weapon X soldiers.

Police and ambulances were already at the motel checking on victims and taping off the scene.

"Rogue! ROGUE!" Logan yelled around, he was restrained when he tried to run past the police.

"Sir, you can't come close." Warned one of the officers, but Logan pushed him away. "I gotta a friend to look for."

The officer gave him an odd look. He checked his clipboard, flipping over a few pages.

"Early twenty female by any chance? Brown and white hair?"

Logan felt his chest tighten in fear, he was hesitant to answer. "Yeah."

The man's face turned stony. "Follow me."

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**Finally updated! :-) **

**Good, bad, or just weird? After watching **_**Hulk versus Wolverine**_**, I was itching to write an action scene. **

**Up next: The truth about Gambit's parents, Wolverine versus Rogue, and (surprise) X-23 shows up. **

**O_o X-men Origins: Gambit comic book is coming out in June. **


	6. Chapter 6

"Sir, you can't come close." Warned one of the officers, but Logan pushed him away. "I gotta a friend to look for."

The officer gave him an odd look. He checked his clipboard, flipping over a few pages.

"Early twenty female by any chance? Brown and white hair?"

Logan felt his chest tighten in fear, he was hesitant to answer. "Yeah."

The man's face turned stony. "Follow me." He led Logan to a bunch of ambulances parked in a half circle, giving any victims the privacy they needed.

"One of my guys found her. Clothes half burnt off, a good amount of blood on her clothes, skin, and the floor. But she seems unharmed. No injuries what so ever."

The warning bells in Logan's mind went off, his mind went into warp speed at trying to figure out some sort of excuse as to why Rogue was unscathed.

The man seemed to have read his mind. He gave Logan a thoughtful look, "We assume she's a mutant, is that correct?"

Logan gave out a short menacing growl, "Is that a problem, bub?"

The man didn't seem concerned with Logan's temper, he just smiled politely, fully understanding Logan's worries. "Sir, we respect mutants and the fact they are _humans_ with special abilities. Nothing more." He opened the back to the ambulance.

Rogue was shivering inside despite that she had on two blankets, a sweatshirt, and jeans to keep warm. She was fine physically, but emotionally she might as well have been beaten to a bloody pulp.

Logan looked back at the man, "She told us about her powers so we gave her gloves and the sweatshirt to keep covered. You have all the privacy you need in case some noisy reporters want a piece of this."

Logan nodded and thanked the man for his understanding and kindness.

Rogue grabbed the blankets tighter to her chest, she casted her head down while Logan climbed into the back and sat down on the plank next to her.

"Rogue-?"

"You left us." Her voice was hallow, "You went off tah God knows where and _left us behind_."

"I know, I'm sorry I couldn't-"

Rogue snapped, her green eyes lit up in anger. Her usually pale skin was red and her whole body was still shaking from the encounter with Weapon-X. "Damn it Logan! Yah don't get it. Yah ran away from us again, from _me_! When Ah needed yah the most, you up and ran!"

Logan couldn't look at her straight as her eyes began to pool with tears.

"Why?"

Logan, the usual tough-as-nails, feral, nasty, bad-ass mutant, let his guards down when Rogue began to cry.

He knew that he disappointed her again, what killed him the most was that he had promised her that he never would.

And he blew it, again.

"Why weren't yah there when Ah needed yah? When _we_ needed yah?"

Something ticked with Logan; he didn't want to take blame for anything that had happened to her. It wasn't his fault that the two were here right now.

"Leave Gumbo out of it. As far as I see it, he's the reason why you're in this mess." Logan huffed, "Should have taken him to MRD like I wanted too."

Rogue grew furious, she bundled the blankets and threw it at him, "He came tah yah for help! He knew if anyone would understand what kind of crap he and Deadpool had gone through, it would be you!"

Logan growled in annoyance, she really didn't get it. The soft spot that Rogue had for every breathing living thing in the world was blinding her to the truth.

"Deadpool _volunteered_ for Weapon-X." he stuck his finger in her face, "And maybe you're little boyfriend neglected to mention that his _father _is Sinister. And that he also volunteered to get worked on."

Rogue smacked his hand away, the surprise look on Logan's face when she did it was classic. He never did expect too much from Rogue. She was always his favorite, his girl (second to Jean, maybe), but now she had had it with him and his Holier-than-thou attitude. He was stubborn to the truth and so ignorant to the fact that he wasn't the only one who had a haunting past.

"Ah know about Sinister and Ah know why Gambit did it."

Logan become fed up and stepped out of the truck, needing fresh air to cool his nerves. Rogue quickly followed him, "Logan!" she yelled out after him.

She pulled on his shirt, "We're not done yet."  
He pulled himself out of her grasp, "Yes we are. Look, the Cajun is a goner; Weapon-X has what they want. There's no way we can find them now."

Rogue crossed her arms over her chest in disgust; she knew that Logan could find them in a heartbeat if he really wanted too.

"He saved mah life; don't yah think we owe him something?" Rogue asked in disbelief. She couldn't believe Logan, her hero, was giving up on someone just like that. It was as if Superman hung up his cape for good.

"He's the one who put your life in danger. As far I see it, he got what he deserved." Logan started to walk away again, adamant about finding away back to Westchester.

"Yah owe him, Logan." Rogue hollered at him angrily.

Logan slowly turned to her, clearly confused. "What?"  
Rogue bit her lip, wondering whether or not if she had the right to tell Gambit's story to him.

"When Gambit was thirteen he went on his first mission for the Thieves Guild to look for these old journals that Sinister wanted back. They were in the old Weapon-X headquarters."

Logan huffed in agitation; he didn't want to think about his times in Weapon X. Emma and Storm were still connected to Logan through cerebro. Emma needed to show Logan that Rogue was right, before Storm called on the rest of the X-men to help get back Gambit.

'_She isn't lying, Logan. You do owe Gambit your life.'_ Emma told him politely as possible, she was getting quite fed up with his arrogance.

Logan watched the smugness on Rogue's double; Emma was supposed to be on his side. "Stay out of this, Frost."

'_I believe you have forgotten that this evolves _everybody_, Logan. Or maybe you have forgotten?'_

Logan could practically feel the ice dripping from Emma's voice. Even Rogue realized that he crossed a line with the resident telepath. Logan's whole body began to twitch as the sky began to darken more with thunder clouds.

Rogue gave Logan two sarcastic thumbs up; leave it to Logan to anger Emma _and_ Storm. "Good goin' Wolvie."

'_Maybe_ _you need to realize why Gambit trusted to come to you_.'

_**Weapon-X HQ (Nunavut, Canada)...**_

_Logan buried his claws deep into the chest of one of the guards, the man let out a blood curling scream when he pulled out his metal claws without mercy. Logan let the man drop dead to the floor; he licked the man's blood of his claws and then attacked the soldier who was coming behind him._

_The hallway was covered in blood, dead bodies, and bloody appendages. The smell of death and gunpowder permeated through the dim lit halls. _

_The temperature in the building was freezing, but Logan was slick with sweat from slashing through his way to freedom. He looked down at his claws; he could still feel the adamantium seeping into his bones. _

_He sniffed the air, there were more men coming from the north, blocking the exit. By the sounds of their foot steps, there were eight of them. They smelled like fear. _

_Logan cried out in pain and looked down, going through his abdomen was a large machete. Slowly he turned around and saw another man trying his best to stand in confidence, wordlessly Logan pulled out the machete. It was dripping with his blood. Another blade went trough him, this time through his right leg. He buckled under the pain for a moment till he could feel his healing factor kick in. He charged into the men in front of him but before he could slice their throats open he felt something sharp wrap around his torso, digging deep into his stomach. He howled in pain as the barbs electrocuted him._

"_Howlett, Don't make this anymore difficult than it has to be." Each man pointed their gun at him, itching to pull the trigger. _

_Logan jumped them, slicing their machine guns into useless chunks. _

"_Backup, we need more backup at sector 18. NOW!" it was the guard last words before Logan tore his chest open._

_He could barely see anything in the dark room as he clawed his way out. Countless numbers of men began shooting at him but failed as Logan plunged his metal claws into their chest. He let out a howl of pain as something blew up behind him, taking out four or five guards who were trying to grab him. Something lit up in the corner, something blurry, small, and quick. _

_Wolverine growled as drops of blood fell from his claws to the floor. His ears could hear every drop, along with every breath his little visitor was taking._

_Another explosion rocked the hallway, taking down a new group of guards. Logan sniffed the air and followed the scent. It led to a lock broom closet; Logan pulled the door off its hinges and pulled out a boy no older than thirteen. He shoved the boy into the wall and pinned him, pressing the tips of his claws into the boy's neck. _

_The boy was only an inch or so shorter than Logan. He was a bit on the scrawny side and smelled like dirt and swamp water. Logan looked at what he assumed was a uniform of some sort: dark red and black leather suite with chrome knee-length combat boots. The thing that struck Logan most about the boy was his eyes. Red on black eyes encased in a tan hollow face._

_He was a mutant._

_To the kid's credit he knew better than to fight back against Logan._

"_I saw what dey did to you and de ot'ers." The kid stammered in a Cajun accent. "I saved your butt back dere. I killed de main communication circuit; why else do you t'ink only de guards in short range came?"_

_Logan smelled him, looking for any scents that proved he worked for Weapon X. "I-I work alone!" The boy stammered again when he felt Logan pressing his claws into his carotid artery. The boy was telling the truth._

"_I'm not here to hurt you!" Logan pressed his claws deeper till he drew out a trickle of blood. The boy hissed in pain as Logan made tiny nicks against his neck, his hands began to glow a deep magenta color._

_Logan was ready for revenge over the people who had turned him into a monster. They stole his life, his love and, most importantly his humanity. He wasn't meant to be like this, everything he worked so damn hard for to be taken away in a heartbeat._

_He looked at the boy, whose eyes were closed in fear that Logan would kill him any second now. _

_Weapon X had no right to take away his life and Logan had no right to take an innocent boy's life. No matter how good it felt to slice someone's head off in anger._

_He dropped the kid to the ground without warning. _

"_Oomph…What da?" The boy opened his eyes and found himself on the damp bloody floor. He looked up at Logan and was scared speechless at his emotionless wild hair, blood stained face. _

"_Run." Logan whispered coldly _

_The kid slipped a bit while taking off, not once did he look back or thank the man for sparing his life. _

_------------------------------------------------------_

"Emma, enough!" Rogue shouted out loud, she wanted to prove her point, but not like this.

Logan was curled into a little ball on the ground. The pain from the memories were crippling him inside and out, it was too much for Rogue to watch.

"AH SAID ENOUGH, EMMA!" Rogue shouted again.

'_Of course, just clearing a few things up for our _chosen_ leader_.'

Logan unsheathed his claws, wanting to break Emma's perfectly constructed nose into dust. He was still panting and a bit wobbly on his feet once he was up. Rogue carefully guided him back to the ambulance; he brushed her off when she tried to look over him.

"Well?" Rogue asked as she sat down next to him, she felt sorry for him. He looked so lost and dazed.

"Why couldn't I remember that?" Logan wheezed, massaging his neck in irritation. He hated not being able to remember his past; the feeling of not being able to control everything scared the crap out of him. Logan knew he was an animal, he just never thought he had the audacity to kill a kid because he went through crap.

That wasn't him.

"Why couldn't he tell me?"

Rogue rolled her eyes, "When was he supposed tah? Before or after yah were trying tah rip his throat out for working for Kelly?"

Logan shrugged; he didn't want to admit that she had a point.

"Besides he was scared to death of yah. Imagine your first meeting with a fellow mutant who wanted to chop your head off."

Logan tempers flared, "Give me break here Rogue, I was a mess."

Rogue scoffed at his excuse. She was getting really fed up with his "I'm the only one who can have issues". It was getting really old.

"That's bull, Logan. And yah know it." Rogue said smugly with arms crossed over her chest. "How is it that Gambit can-wait, what happened to Emma?"

Logan frowned, he felt the disconnection too. Both of them had felt Emma in their mind following their conversation. But now it was silent, as if someone cut off the line.

The constant noise of people talking and moving stopped. It was dead silent except for a small 'click' sound.

Rogue stood rock still, "What was that?"

Logan grabbed her wrist and pulled her back, "Stay here." He warned her, before Rogue could protest he was off.

"Crap."

Everyone was still alive, but they were knocked out. Nothing in the air caused Logan to think they were gassed.

'Click'

Logan turned to the direction of the sound and within seconds he was the ground.

_**Weapon X Lab…**_

"Gambit. Gambit. Wake up…"

Remy groaned in pain, his neck still felt stiff from the guards sticking syringe full of sedatives in him. He made a mental note to get back at Wade for sticking him with three needles at one time.

He could still feel the drug running through his veins. It was like living in slow motion, underwater. His eye lids felt heavy and the room looked blurry. He shook his head and then finally the room came into focus.

"Merde."

He was in a operation room.

He lifted his arm only to find out he was cuffed to a metal table. He had only his boxer shorts on to keep him decent. He looked around the room. There were a few people in white lab coats standing and watching him, a look of pity on a few of their faces.

"Gambit?"

He came face to face with one of the doctors, Remy looked at the man's name sewn into his coat.

"Picard. I like dat name. Remy Picard." (1) He clicked his tongue, "Y'see. Dat don't have de right ring to it."

The man rolled his eyes in annoyance and cursed the guards out loud for drugging Gambit too much.

"Remind me, Forlas, to personally thank Cross for bringing Gambit to me in one drunken piece."

The rest of the doctors stared in fear as the dark cold voice came closer. They knew the man too well to talk back.

"Yeah! Daddy's home!" Remy squealed to the horror and amusement off the doctors and Sinister. "Is Daddy gonna play football wid me now?" Remy asked in a sickly sweet voice. His eyes though were burning with rage.

Sinister laughed at his son's antics like any other father would. "So the prodigal son returns to his loving father."

Remy snorted. "Loving," he pulled on the cuffs that were binding his wrist and ankles to the table. "If dis is your idea of loving, den you're more screwed up den I t'ought, homme."

Sinister's eyes glowed, matching the same eeriness as Remy's eyes. Sinister looked at his assistants and pointed at the door. "Out."

Remy waved to the doctors as they rushed to get out off the room. "Later Picard. Tell the rest of de Enterprise crew dat I said hi."

After the last doctor left, Sinister pulled up a chair near the table. "You always seem to be full of jokes whey your scared." He smiled sadistically.

Remy sucked in his cheeks, wishing that he had a cigarette with him. Anything was better than talking to his father.

"Chris, Chris, Chris. Look oh how the mighty have fallen." Sinister's eyes glowed with glee, but he looked proud.

Secretly he was happy to have his son back with him. He had missed him all those years that he was running amok with the guilds in New Orleans.

"It's Gambit." Remy gritted between his teeth. "Wid you, it's always gonna be Gambit." He tried to charge the binds but received a nasty shock. He looked down at his stomach and was not too surprised to see another bind. It was glowing yellow; it looked like an altered version of the collar he had stolen from the X-men.

"Terrific."

"A father knows his son best."

Anger boiled through Remy's veins. "You are not my pere."  
Sinister chuckled, the red diamond in the middle of his forehead glowed brightly as his looks began to alter. His pasty white skin turned normal and his demon eyes turned into cold hazel colored eyes.

"You're not'ing mais some twisted sick chienne." Remy growled, "Y'say you're all about protecting mutants, mais all you do is just create more monsters. I'm not gonna let you dat t'me."

Sinister smirked, Remy could feel his stomach churning. He looked too much like Sinister.

"You seem to have forgotten that you are captured." Sinister tapped the restraints to prove his point. "Whose going to save you now?" He teased, before Remy could reply he cut him off. "And don't say the X-men. You don't really think they will come for you?"

"Dey will."

Sinsiter frowned. "With your track record? I doubt it." He stepped closer to Remy till they were an inch apart. "Beside, there's no peace for the wicked."

Remy opened his mouth to speak, but quickly closed it. He wasn't the greatest guy on earth, no where close. He knew his record wasn't clean; he had hurt, robbed, and killed more people than he was willing to admit.

"You were born to serve with me." His father reminded him.

Rogue's advice came back to him. He wanted to believe her, he really did. But it was hard. All of his life he was called 'evil' or 'devil'. His whole life he believed that he was born evil, he tried to prove himself wrong. But it never worked out in the end.

"Think about it, Gambit. Everyone you have ever known has lied or hurt you. I'm the only one who has ever tried to help you and protect you."

Lie

All lies.

Remy hung his head, for a while there he was starting to believe Sinister. There were a lot of people who never cared for him. Except for one person that Sinister neglected to mention.

Julie-Ann.

Remy could feel a few tears cascade down his face. He couldn't remember Julie-Ann; he had seen a few old photos of her. But that was it.

He couldn't remember a single thing about his own mother.

"You're lying." Remy mumble, thankful that his long bangs hid his teary eyes.

"About what?"

Remy finally looked up, shaking away the bangs from his line of sight. His eyes were glowing again. Sinister was lucky, if it weren't for the collar there would be nothing from stopping Remy from blowing him up.

"Y'killed my mere."

Remy had to admit, Sinister had a really good poker face, almost as good as his.

"Heather Presley-Essex was a good for nothing street walker when she gave you up."

Remy shook his head, "Non." He smirked, " Y'didn't really t'ink I would still believe you after what you put me t'rough?"

Sinister stepped back in anger. He hadn't expected Remy to go off in search of his mother.

"Heather Presley was a prostitute who died after Julie-Ann Reese was _murdered_."

Sinister looked away at the sound of the name. From underneath his shirt he pulled out a thin gold chain with a gold ring hanging from it.

Remy stared the ring in shock.

Sinister still had his wedding ring?!

The man looked so old now; he sat down again and rubbed his face tiredly. "How did you find out?"

_**Opelousas, Louisiana (Ten years ago)…**_

_Remy looked up in amazement at St Landry Catholic Church (2). He wasn't very religious, but his Tante Mattie was very adamant about Remy and his brother and cousins going to Sunday school and early morning mass when they were children. _

_Looking up now made him a bit apprehensive about going in._

_It had taken him months to track down the last place where his mother resided. Nathan had told him that she had abandoned him after finding out he would become a mutant. _

_According to Nathan, she had sold Remy for money to a dealer. _

_Even with that Remy couldn't help but feel a small sense of attachment to the woman who had given him life. He thought she was beautiful in the picture Nathan had given him to keep. Heather Presley-Essex had shoulder length red-brown hair, gray eyes, and a heart shaped face with a few freckles on her high cheek bones and nose._

_Remy couldn't believe this was the women who had given him up for drug money._

_The interior of the church was beautiful. It had been awhile since Remy's last visit to church. _

_There were a few people sitting in the pews. Quietly Remy slid into one of the pew, he prayed to God to make him good and to finally make peace with his mother._

_"Excuse me? Are you Detective Bishop?" (3) Asked a petite middle aged woman, she was dressed down in an old moth eaten sweater and jeans. _

_Remy stood up to give her his hand to shack. He had to remember that he gave the church a fake name when called them to ask questions about his mother. _

_The woman introduced herself as Sister Tamari. "You came wanting to speak to Sister Eliza, right?"_

_Remy shook his head, "Oui, I wanted to ask her some questions about an old case I'm investigating." The woman gave him an odd look._

_"Is dere a problem?" he asked stepping back a bit. He wondered for a minute if the contacts he had put in to give him normal brown eyes had fallen out somehow. _

_"No, you just look familiar. Have we met before?" she asked studying his face. _

_Remy smiled, "Non, I don't think so." _

_He breathed out a sigh of relief when Tamari gave up and asked him to follow her to the back office. She knocked on one of the doors, "Sister Eliza, detective Bishop is here to see you." She called through the door._

_"Let him in."_

_Tamari stepped back and let Remy into the small office. The office was very neat and smelled like lavender. The windows were opened all the way, letting the bright sunlight in. _

_"Take a seat." Eliza pointed to the seat in front of her. She was a tall fifty-something year old African-American with short wavy black hair and beautiful smile. She too was dressed down in blue sweatshirt and khakis. "So Detective Bishop, what brings you to St Landry Church?"_

_Remy tapped his fingers nervously against the wooden desk. He had every word planned out, but didn't expect on feeling so sick about it. _

_"I'm here to find out information on Heather Presley." He told her, making sure he sounded confident as a cop should be. _

_Eliza frowned, "I thought that case was solved already?"_

_"We found new evidence. I'm just here to tie up a few knots." He answered quickly._

_Eliza cocked her head to the side, studying Remy. She looked straight into his eyes and smiled. __"What do you want to know about her?"_

_"Anything you know."_

_"She was a troubled young woman. Orphaned at the age of twelve, let go from the state as soon as she turned eighteen. Worked till her death."_

_Remy was confused. Did Heather tell Eliza this to protect her from Nathan?_

_"Did she have any ot'er family? A child for instance?"_

_"__Eliza shook her head 'no'. "Heather couldn't have children. Though I think she wanted one."_

_Remy pulled out the picture and gave it Eliza. "Are you sure about dat? I was under de impression dat Miss Presely gave birth to a boy."_

_Eliza couldn't answer him, her mouth was hanging open in awe at the picture. Remy could see tears in her eyes._

_"Where did you get this?"_

_"An old friend of Heather's."_

_Eliza looked up at him, she held out the picture "This isn't Heather. This is Julie-Ann Reese."_

_"Ce qui?"_

_Eliza continued to ignore him as she smiled at the picture. "She used to work here at the church." She wiped away a few tears as the memories of her old friend began to surface in her mind. "She and I started to work here around the same time. She was so bubbly and funny. Everyone loved her. Including Heather, she was one of Julie-Ann's first cases."_

_Remy took back the photo in shock. Nathan had lied to him._

_What else was new?_

_"Can you tell me more about Julie-Ann?"_

_Eliza bit her lip; there were so many things to tell about Julie-Ann. "She was a wonderful woman. We loved her and her son. He was really popular with everyone too." She smiled as she picked up one of the framed photos on her desk. Remy put on his best poker face as he stared at the picture of Julie-Ann holding him, he must have been at least two years old._

_"Julie-Ann came here to start a new life with her son. At first she told everyone here that her name was Kirsten and that her son's name was Alessandro. It wasn't until later that she trusted me well enough to tell me the truth."_

_"Which was?"_

_"Her ex-husband was an abusive nasty man who wanted to experiment on her son. Chris was mutant, we all knew that. One look at that handsome little face with those big red on black eyes and you knew he was a mutant."_

_Remy couldn't help but smile. It was nice to know people weren't afraid of him when he was little._

_"She didn't want her husband to hurt her son. So she ran away, came here and started a new life. Everything was going great; she was really starting to make a new life with Chris. Till her husband found her."_

_Remy could feel his powers itching to be released. Nathan had lied to him about _everthing_._

"_Her husband killed her?"_

_Eliza pressed her lips together for a moment, "The police said that it was just a robbery turned homicide. But I knew better." she hugged the framed picture close, "When we found out that Chris had been taken we were scared for him." She idly traced her finger around the frame's edges, "We looked everywhere for that baby. Police finally gave up on him and declared him as dead." She set the picture down slowly and sighed "We all prayed that if he was still alive that he was being taken care off."_

_Remy gulped down his guilt, there were so many people here worried about him. It didn't feel right that he was tricking them._

_"Do you have anything that belongs to Miss Reese by any chance?"_

_Eliza tapped her hands on the arms of her chair before scouring her desk drawer. She pulled out a small velvet box and opened it to reveal a thin gold chain necklace with a small gold cross. She handed it over to Remy._

_"It was a gift from us to her when she joined us."_

_Remy touched the small cross; it felt weird knowing that necklace was once worn by his mother._

_"You can keep it."_

_He tried not to smile in excitement. __"Merci." _

_"More of Julie-Ann belongings are in the compartment downstairs. We didn't want them to be stored in some dusty police department storage."_

_Eliza smiled as Remy's brown eyes glimmered with hope and excitement. She left the key to the storage compartment next to her on the desk. _

_"Is there anything else that you want to ask me about Julie-Ann?" __Remy shook his head and stood up to leave. "Non, Dat's it." Before he could leave Eliza spoke up again._

_"What ever it is you're looking for detective, I hope you find it."_

_Remy turned around and gave his thanks to her before leaving. Eliza wasn't surprised at all when she noticed that the key was missing._

_-----------------------------------------------_

"Y'got one of your chronies to kill her, didn't you?" Remy asked his father, his voice sounded so cold and detached. For so long he thought his mother abandon him, instead she died _for_ him.

"Yes." Sinister answered without a single amount of remorse for his dead wife. He finally recognized that Remy had on Julie-Ann's necklace around his neck. "Julie-Ann didn't understand what needed to be done. What should have been done all those years ago."

"Was it worth it, killing your _wife_ j'st for y'to get all dese powers?"

Sinister didn't answer him; instead he turned back to his demon like form. He called his assistants into the room. "Get him ready for the operation." He ordered coldly before leaving.

_**Weapon-X prison cells…**_

Rogue finally opened her eyes in time to realize that she was being dragged by her arms through a unknown hallway.

Her memories of what happened came back to her. Logan had told her not to move, but then she heard another click, before she could run to make sure Logan wasn't hurt she heard another click and something prick her side. A second later she blacked out.

She could feel her fingers and toes. Fortunately, she had both Logan and Gambit's healing power.

She pulled her arm away from the guards, punching them both in the stomach. She quickly pulled off her gloves while they were still down. She saw one guard reach for his walkie-talkie; with a good kick in the face she shattered his helmet. Giving her a chance to touch his face.

The memories she saw surprised her.

"That's it?" she asked out loud in amazement. With the strength of the guard, Rogue took down the second guard without breaking a sweat.

"All this time, that's how they were controlling mutants?" Rogue wondered out loud again.

_SNIKT_

Rogue knew that sound from anywhere; she thought for a moment that it was Logan, till she turned around to see a small skinny girl with long black hair blocking the exit. The girl had two claws coming out of her fists and one on each foot.

"Okay. This is new." The girl put up her claws, she stood in a fighting stance, waiting for Rogue to make the next move.

"Yah wanna play?" Rogue unsheathed her own set of bone claws; she didn't want to hurt the girl. But she knew what she had to do. "Let's play, sugah."

The girl charged at her with claws held out, Rogue flipped over her, but the girl was one step ahead. She turned and kicked Rogue in the stomach, cutting her sweatshirt opened.

Rogue swore out loud as she dodged the claws again. Not only did the girl look like Logan, but she fought like him. The girl got her again, this time stabbing her in the leg. Rogue let out a cry as the girl pulled out the blades quickly.

"Alright, plan B." Rogue seethed before teleporting out of the room. The girl looked around the hallway startled at her opponent's power. She sniffed out the hallway, but could only get a whiff of brimstone.

"ARGH!" The girl felt something stab her neck deep; she could feel a strong tug and then nothing.

Rogue let the girl drop to the ground as she stared at the little chip that was skewered on the tip of her bone claw. The chip was still blinking. The chip sent out orders to all the mutants who were implanted with it. Rogue crushed the tiny chip under her heel.

"W-what happened to me?" the girl asked shakily staring at her blood covered hands. She looked up at Rogue for the answer. "Do I know you?"

Rogue mustered all the courage she had and gave the girl her hand (she had her gloves back on). She didn't know whether taking out the chip meant that the girl was harmless.

"Ah'm Rogue." The girl's eyes looked so vacant. "Do yah have a name?" Rogue asked her gently.

"I-I think. My mom once gave me a name, but I don't remember it anymore." Rogue crouched down to the girl. "People here call me X-23." She mumbled.

"Ah can help yah, but first yah need tah help me find mah friends." X-23 shook her head and backed away."Ah know yah don't want tah be cooped up here for the rest of yoah life."

X-23 chewed on her lip, she stood up. "I can show you the way."

_**Meanwhile at the X-mansion…**_

Scott looked through the stacks of paper on Hank's desk. He ran his fingers through his hair as the images of Sinister working on him and Jean came to mind. He hated those two weeks with passion. He hated Sinister with passion. It didn't feel right that Logan and Rogue were helping his son after what he did to them.

As far as Scott was concerned, the apple didn't fall far from the tree."

"Reading up for a pop quiz?" Scott jumped at the sound of Hank's voice. He re-stacked the papers neatly, "Not really, no."

Hank set a cup of hot coffee in front of him. "Did Emma find them yet?"

Hank shook his head, "Not yet. I suggested that we should go over and find them, but Logan warned Storm that we shouldn't go after them. Apparently Weapon-X makes the MRD look like a pee-wee baseball team."

"I still don't get why we have to help Sinister's _son_. The guy proved to us that he doesn't care about mutants. He's turning into his father." Scott pounded his fists against the table, rattling the cup of coffee and papers.

Hank could understand his friend's anger, but at the same time he could understand Gambit's situation. According to Ororo, Gambit had been burned more times than Hank could imagine. "I don't think Gambit wanted to be kidnapped, Scott."

"Do you think he wanted to give Kelly the inhibitor collar or blow up Genosha?" Scott asked sarcastically, finally taking a sip of his coffee.

Hank smiled, he had half expected Scott to react that way. He began to wipe the dirt off his glasses. "No, but I'm not going to talk and assume that what Gambit had in mind when he was working for Kelly was good. I just know that I can't judge a man without considering his past."

"As far as I'm concerned the guy is just like Sinister."

Hank chuckled; he grabbed one of the stacks of paper and flipped through them till he found the paper he was looking for."It's funny. You think you know a person till something shocking changes your opinion of them." He handed the paper Scott. The expression on friend's face was one of pure surprise. Hank was sure that Scott's eyebrows were going to float off his face if they went up any higher.

"You-I-You're not serious, are you?" Scott asked shakily as he continued to read the paper.

Hank smiled knowingly, "We all search for some sort of peace with who we are, Scott. Gambit is just trying to find his."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Thanks everyone and sorry for the wait.**

**1) In X-men Forever ,Chris Claremont changed Remy's last name to Picard. It's kind of funny, considering Remy's dad and Picard both share the same first name. **

**2)It's a real church and Opelousas is a real city in Louisiana. **

**3)I was sad to see that there was no connection between Gambit and Bishop in WATX. **

**Up next: Rogue and X-23 finds Logan and the rest of the Weapon-X mutants, Sinister finally finishes his experiment on Gambit, and Deadpool saves the day (well, sort of).**


	7. Chapter 7

"You-I-You're not serious, are you?" Scott asked shakily as he continued to read the paper.

Hank smiled knowingly, "We all search for some sort of peace with who we are, Scott. Gambit is just trying to find his."

Scott shook his head vigorously, he pointed to the address on the sheet of paper. "Is this right?" he asked in a dazed voice.

Hank peered closer to the sheet, "Yes. Kitty was able to find the address where Remy's parents first lived."

"Oh God." He bolted from his seat and ran out of the room. Hank, alarmed by his friend's sudden outburst, quickly followed up the stairs towards Scott's room.

"What is going on?" Bobby asked as he and Hank watched Scott pull out few boxes from his closet. Each box was taped and labeled.

"Found it!" Scott lifted a large box labeled home and set it on his bed.

"Found what exactly?" Hank asked but Scott only ignored him and rummaged through the worn out box. Some of the stuff he noticed were things that had survived the explosion,

Finally after a minute of so Scott pulled out a worn black leather photo album. The spine was tired and peeling and the corners looked scorched.

"What is it?" Bobby squeezed between the two men to get a better look at the open album. Inside was full of old picture of Scott's family before the plane crash.

"You said that they lived on Caroller Drive, right?" Scott asked abruptly as he flipped through the pages back and forth.

"Yes. Scott, really I don't see the point in all this." Hank sighed.

"This is the point." Scott pointed to a picture of two young women. The first woman was blond, blue eyed and was smiling widely. Her arm was over the other woman's shoulder, red-brown haired and gray eyed.

Hank gasped when he finally recognized the woman. "Oh my star and garters." He gently pulled out the photo from the slip to take a closer look.

"Who's she?" Bobby was confused; he knew that the blond woman was Kate Summers, Scott's mother.

"That's Aunt J." Scott answered him with a sore voice. He barely knew the woman, but he could remember his mother talking to her and about her.

"Who?"

"Julie-Ann Reese, Remy's biological mother." Hank answered Bobby in amazement.

"She was my mom's best friend." Scott added, he could feel his body go cold as bits and pieces of memories of his mom trying to look for Julie-Ann came back to him.

Hank flipped trough a couple pages and noticed a picture of two baby boys playing on a blue blanket in a park. Hank could feel his throat close up, "That isn't who I think it is, is it?"

Scott pulled out the picture and sadly nodded. "Now we know." He sighed and sat down on the edge of his bed.

Hank couldn't believe it. The whole time they were looking for answers about Gambit and all this time it was right underneath their noses.

"You never knew your mom and his mom were friends?" Bobby asked finally when he noticed the two were being quiet.

Scott shook his head slowly; his eyes were still on the photo. He never got why he couldn't figure it out till now. He could see that the other boy in the picture had red-on-black eyes. He never considered that the boy in the photo was _Gambit_.

"I was two when my mom lost contact with Julie. All I really remember is that my dad and mom hated her husband."

Bobby rolled his eyes. "Shocker." He replied sarcastically. "You think Sinister planned all this? I mean, didn't he pretend to be a little boy at your orphanage?"

"Wouldn't surprise me if he did. The Professor was sure that he was watching Jean since she was born."

Hank finally figured it out. "He wanted to keep tabs with the strongest mutants." He stood up and looked at the two in worry. "That's why Remy is being hunted down. It's not Thorton, its Sinister who's behind this." Hank ran out back down to find Ororo and Emma.

"Whoah. Hank, wait up!" Scott and Bobby hollered as they followed Hank. "What are you talking about?"

"I thought it was Weapon-X who was behind all this?" Bobby asked curiously.

Hank wished he had the paper work to make it clear. "No. They are not." He shook his head grimily. "We all know that Sinister has many disguise, right?"

Bobby and Scott nodded 'yes'.

"Well when the Professor mentioned Milsbury I double checked to find out that he graduated with multiple degrees in genetics and bio engineering a _long_ time ago around the same time another man by the name of Dr. Windsor also started to work for work for a special division in the department of farming and agriculture in Canada."

"What kind of 'special division'?"

"The kind where they experiment on mutants." Hank led them to his lab and pulled out a couple x-ray scans of Remy's skull. "Remy went to Sinister for help to control his powers. That much we know." He looked at the two to see if they understood him. "What we didn't know was why Weapon-X wanted him. Till now."

He posted the x-rays of Remy's operation along with Scott's and Logan's. Each suture was stitched up exactly the same way.

"They're all the same." Scott's eyes widened in horror when it finally dawned on him. "Sinister _works_ for Weapon-X. That's why Remy freaked out when he found out Deadpool was missing; he knew his dad was behind it."

"Sinister is known to keep tabs on every powerful mutant. For all we know he could have planned on moving his family closer to yours to keep a closer eye on you Scott." Hank explained, piecing together all evidence in his mind. "He also likes to collect the strongest mutants as weapons. If he gets his hands on Gambit and reverses the surgery we may be in even more trouble."

Bobby gulped; the sound of Hank's grave voice didn't help the situation at all. "What kind of trouble?"

Hank looked at the two with despair in his eyes. His only hope was that Logan and Rogue could get to Gambit and Deadpool in time. "Let's put it this way. If Remy gets his full powers back then we're looking at walking talking nuclear warhead."

**Weapon-X H.Q…**

"Can yah remember anything before they implanted that chip in yah?"

X-23 pursed her lip for a moment, flipping through her memories was like looking for a needle in a haystack. Nothing was clear. Just flashes of blood and tears.

"No. Nothing." X-23 mumbled numbly, she looked up at Rogue. "I can't remember anything about my past. Just…" she ran her fingers against the cold hallway walls. "This place." Her voice sounded so angry and cold.

Weapon-X had robbed her of everything, leaving her with only guilt and shame for the destruction she had caused others.

"Hey," Rogue placed a comforting hand on the girl's small shoulder, "it's gonna be okay."

"Nothing is 'okay'. If your friends are in here then they are probably under Weapon-X's control already."

Rogue frowned; she wasn't much of an optimistic at this point of her life. But she needed to believe that Logan and Gambit were going to be alright.

"If they are, then Ah'm gonna fight for them. Ah'm not leaving them behind in here." Rogue said testily with arms crossed. She looked at the small girl with determination in her eyes, "Ah got yah back tah normal, didn't Ah? Who says Ah can't do the same for them?"

X-23 shifted uneasily, "Fine."

Rogue bit back a smile, the girl _was_ Logan.

"So," Rogue eyed the gray dim lit hallway with displeasure, "yah think yah can find them?"

"I think they are going to find us first. You knocked out two guards; someone is going to notice they are not responding and that you are not in the prison cells." X-23 suddenly stiffened; she sniffed the air and looked up. "Too late."

Rogue looked up in alarm. "Yah gotta be kidding me."

Hanging from the light fixtures with swords out was Deadpool. She couldn't tell if he was smiling or not because of his black and red mask. He jumped down flipping a few times before landing perfectly.

_SNIKT _

X-23 growled in annoyance with claws already out on both hands and feet. She stood in front of Rogue in battle stance, ready for Deadpool to make the first move.

"No, X. Yah can't fight him. He's a friend of Gambit."

"He's no friend of mine. He's a pain in the a-"

Deadpool charged them aiming right at X-23. Rogue grabbed X-23 by the arms and flipped her over and then dropped to the ground, sweeping her leg underneath his feet. She stood up quickly and grabbed Deadpool's katanas, she held one sword towards his throat.

Deadpool stood unimpressed and grabbed two guns from his belt, pointing them right at Rogue's head.

"Draw." Deadpool teased. "Guess your finished, skunk head."

Rogue flinched, guns beat swords any day.

"Not yet." X-23 flipped over the two and stabbed Deadpool behind the neck with her claw.

Deadpool went down with a loud yelp a bit dramatically.

X-23 looked a bit too happy; she looked at the blood on her claw and smiled. "Pretty." She whipped the blood on her pants, not seeing Rogue becoming pale.

"Wwwhhhoooaaaa." Deadpool shot up like a bullet, massaging his neck. He cursed when he felt a hole on the neck park of his uniform.

He looked up at the two, with the mask still on; neither of the two could read his expression.

He groaned in pain and grabbed his head as the pain began to subside. "Geez, now I know how George Clooney felt when he saw Batman and Robin." He smiled at the two worried looking girls. "What the hell happened? One minute I'm trying to get this hot girl's number at a coffee shop, she was like a freaking ten-okay nine, but she was still hot. Now I'm here with Summer Glue look-a-like and," he looked Rogue up and down.

Rogue took a step back when he growled flirtatiously, "Hey cutie. What's your sign?"

X-23 looked between the two in disgust. She was going to carve a new nose into the person who gave her a heighten sense of smell. Smelling the pheromones coming off of Deadpool was not fun.

Rogue took two more steps back, "You're friends with Gambit, right? He came here tah look for yah."

"Ol'Remy is here? Where is he?" he sighed as if he were heart broken. "Remy. What a guy. I remember the first time we met, over a sea of blood and strewn body parts." He held his hands close to his heart. "We looked into each other's eyes and it was bromance at first sight."

Rogue nodded slowly; not very sure how take respond to that. "Right. He's in here, he let himself get caught." She didn't want to mention that Gambit sacrificed himself to save her. She still could feel the guilt eating through her.

"Crap." Deadpool began to pace down the hallway, "I knew he was going to get his butt in trouble. But does anybody ever listen to me? Noooo, I'm just some hot guy who kills for a living. Why take any advice from me? I mean I can give you better advice then-"

"DEADPOOL?!" Rogue shouted, silencing the 'merc-with-a-mouth'. "Logan and Gambit need our help. Weapon-X implanted a little chip in the back of your neck, along with X-23 here." She pointed at the petite girl as evidence "That's how they were able to control yah."

Deadpool frowned in confusion, "Wait a minute here. You said they got Logan too?"

Rogue nodded 'yes'.

"Oookkkaayy, the runt I get. Why would the Professor want to kidnap Gambit? Don't get me wrong, he's a great guy. Just not really kidnapping material."

X-23 shook her head, even with her healing power; she wasn't immune to the occasional headaches.

"Ah don't know why they would want tah kidnap Gambit. But he's here and that's not a good thing. Do you know where they might be keeping him and Logan?"

Deadpool couldn't remember a thing; the last thing he could remember was talking to Gambit before fighting Weapon-X.

"Nope. But if this place is anything like the other Weapon-X buildings than they could be keeping Logan in the upper levels. For operations and stuff."

X-23 shook her head, "Depending on how long Rogue and her friends have been here, they could be finish with the operations."

Rogue massaged her temples; she couldn't believe that she had lost them. Not yet at least.

"We don't know that for sure. So let's not assume that." She pointed to Deadpool. "X-23 and Ah are gonna find the operating room, maybe Logan is in there. You go look for Gambit."

"Great, yeah, that's a plan."

Rogue could feel her face turn red. "Yah got a better plan, Wilson?"

Deadpool tapped his finger against his chin thoughtfully, "Nope."

Rogue rolled her eyes, "Ah thought so."

Deadpool put his hands in the air as a sign of surrender. "Alright. Just one little tiny thing…"

"What?"

"How are we supposed to know where the other one is? Unless you're one of those spooks, we can't just guess now can we? One of us is liable to get our butt kicked. Of course not me, but you two are liable to get caught then I'll have to-"

"According to the guard _Ah siphoned_ memories from, there should be an exit near the arsenal room, next tah quadrant twelve. We can meet there in two hours." Rogue made sure to emphasize 'siphoned', hoping that the hint would shut Deadpool up.

Deadpool pursed his lips and cocked his head to the side, "Siphoning powers, huh?"

Rogue nodded smugly.

Deadpool clapped his hands and went off, "See you ladies in two hours."

X-23 growled with claws out, "Can I please cut off his head? Please?"

"No, but if yah want we can stitch his mouth close later."

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Deadpool had made it to the third floor without a problem, making the mercenary a bit apprehensive. So far it was too easy; apparently the Professor Thorton was taking his sweet time to take control.

"How is he doing?" Deadpool's ears perked at the sound of the unknown man's voice coming from three doors down.

He poked his head in, '_Crap, guess I found the operating room.'_

There were five men in the room, two doctors and three guards. The room was wide and sterile looking. On the far left side of the room was a large glass cylinder tube filled with some type of liquid. Suspended inside with tubes and wires connected to him was Gambit.

"He's doing fine. The operation went terrific." Replied one of doctors, he flipped through his clipboard and smiled. "So far everything is going smoothly. He should be ready for the chip implantation soon."

"You're surprised that he lived?"

The doctor shrugged, "Considering what Sinister said about him controling his powers. I was thought that his body couldn't stand the surge of powers."

"Sir," one of the guards interrupted, "We have an alert six, one of the prisoners has escaped and two of our weapons aren't responding to the chip's call."

The other doctor frowned, "That's not possible. Those chips can't stop working unless someone manually takes them out."

"Ahem," Everyone looked up to find Deadpool hanging from the ceiling light, "you never seen _The Island of Dr. Moreau_ before have you?"

The guards were slow to shoot, Deadpool glided toward the ground and fired at both doctors in the chest and stomach.

Deadpool looked at the dead doctors then shifted his glance at the guards. "I really hate when people try to control me." He shot them in the legs until he finished his round of bullets. The three guards were groaning in pain, trying desperately to crawl. Deadpool stood over them with a sadistic smile. "Don't bother to try to save yourselves. You'll be dead in few minutes with all that blood you're loosing."

He walked over to the glass cylinder. "Hey buddy."

Gambit had his eyes closed; it looked eerily similar to how Logan looked during the adamantium infusion. His red-brown hair floated in the water, his eyes were closed and the only thing he had on was black boxers. Over his nose and mouth was an air mask, it was the only thing that made Deadpool certain that his friend was still alive.

"Still can't believe you actually came here dude." He pressed his hand against the cold glass. He couldn't blame Gambit for coming now, if Sinister was really the one behind this, then he could understand why Gambit came after him. "Give me a second." He thought twice about shooting through the glass, but worried about the impact hurting Gambit.

"Could be bullet proof." Deadpool tapped the glass hard, "One way to find out." He smashed his fist through.

The cylinder exploded from the force of the punch, sending water and glass everywhere.

"Great." Deadpool sat on the floor soaked to the bone. He looked around, squeezing the excess water from his uniform; about four feet away from him laid Gambit.

He wasn't moving.

"Gambit." Deadpool kneeled next to him and checked his breathing.

"Damn it."

Gambit wasn't breathing.

Deadpool looked at his buddy's face; slowly he titled Gambit's head back and pinched his nose.

"Pretend its Scarlett Johansson. Pretend its Scarlett Johansson. Pretend its Scarlett Johansson." Deadpool repeated the mantra aloud as his mouth got closer to Gambit's.

"What da?" The voice surprised Deadpool away.

Gambit's eyes released a stream of kinetic energy towards the ceiling. He closed his eyes, feeling the energy burn through him.

"Dude, what the hell did you just do?"

Gambit opened his eyes again; he looked up and saw the ceiling was now bright pink.

"Merde." He looked at Deadpool, "Get out of here. NOW!"

Deadpool wasted no time in grabbing Gambit before the ceiling exploded. They were half way out the door when the rubble fell on them.

The ceiling was clear gone, including the floor over it.

Deadpool pushed the rubble away, breathing in the cool air. He could feel his eyes sting as the dust began to settle.

"No doubt that the others heard this." He looked around and gulped. "REMY?!" He pulled himself out from the pile of cement and tile. He heard a loud groan and pushed over a huge block of cement.

"Dude, you okay?"

Thanks to Gambit's healing power, he was fine. His eyes were now completely back to normal. Gambit ran his hands through his hair and he looked down at his hands.

"I can feel it."

"What?"

"I can feel my powers." Gambit wobbled a bit as he stood up, he could feel his powers running though him. But it didn't hurt anymore; he couldn't feel any headaches or burning hands.

"I can feel my powers but dat's it. No more pain. Sinister _actually_ did it."

"That's great." Deadpool deadpanned "He would win father of the year, except he's the freaking reason why we're here!"

Gambit looked around destroyed room in realization that his father was the cause of all this.

"For now can we put the daddy issues on the back burner? You got some hot chick looking for you and Logan."

Gambit could feel the color drain from his face. He should have known that Sinister and Thorton would kidnap Rogue and Logan.

"We gotta find dem fast. Sinister has got a chip implanted in the back of Logan's neck, it's supposed to-"

"Put him under the Professor's control. Yeah I know, I had the pleasure of having one myself." Deadpool tapped his foot impatiently, "Dude, seriously we gotta get out of here. I don't feel like getting chopped or diced."

Gambit smirked; he had over heard some of the plans for some of the others here. But Deadpool wasn't mentioned at all. "Actually dey were gonna put some of dem claws in you. Not to mention some laser eyes and a bunch of ot'er stuff."

"WHAT?!"

Gambit grinned as he watched his friend swirl two kanatas. He would tell him he was joking later, if they ever made it out of here.

"Now they're asking for some serious butt kicking. They think they can turn me into Barakapool?! They got another think coming!" he snarled. "Let's go!" Deadpool was halfway down the hallway when he noticed that Gambit wasn't following after him. .

"What's wrong?"

Gambit frowned and pointed to his half naked body, "In case you haven't realized it homme, I'm wearing boxers only."

Deadpool laughed, "Like it's your first time running around like that." He ignored the scowling look Gambit was giving him. "Hey, consider your self lucky dude. Wolverine went running in his birthday suit."

They both shivered as the image of Logan running naked in the woods entered their minds.

Deadpool looked over at were the guards and doctors were buried. "What size do you wear?"

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Rogue and X-23 had felt the explosion from the other side of the Weapon-X head quarters.

"I wonder who was behind that." X-23 mumbled as she dusted her pants off. The explosion had sent them off their feet.

"Yah think he found Gambit?" Rogue asked worriedly, taking in the new scenery. They were walking over one of the many bridges that were suspended over countless of large cylinders holding mutants. From the top deck Rogue could see a few of the cylinders held babies, each marked with the letter 'X' then a number.

X-23.

Rogue stepped away from the railing and continued to follow the girl. It was getting harder to breath; the air was thick with formaldehyde.

"Do yah know where we're going?"

X-23 stopped walking and sniffed. The formaldehyde was making it difficult to smell out other scents.

"You okay?"

X-23's eyes went wide, "He's here."

"AARRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!" Sabretooth jumped up from behind Rogue, tackling and pinning her to the ground. Rogue let out a shrill scream when she felt Sabretooth's claws go into her side. It felt like she was being ripped open from the seams. Rogue pushed him off, right in time for X-23 to tackle him. Rogue watched with watery eyes as X-23 choked the large blond feral man.

Rogue looked at her hand, "Oh no." Her blood was all over her and her hands.

X-23 stabbed Sabretooth in the side; she was having a hard time stabbing the back of his neck. Sabretooth finally got the upper hand and pinned her, X-23 pretended to ignore the sound of Rogue yelling as Sabretooth began to choke her, making the man think he was winning the fight.

"Idiot." X-23 growled through the choke hold. She kicked Sabretooth in the shins with foot claws out. Sabretooth pulled away in pain. X-23 kicked him again in the knees, cutting right through the knee caps. With the impact Sabretooth flew into the railing, breaking it.

X-23 looked down, Sabretooth was lying in a pool of his own blood, and he had landed one of the glass cylinders.

X-23 wiped the blood dribbling down her chin. She rushed back to Rogue, who was still on the ground clutching her side.

"Are you alright?" X-23 offered her hand. She peered curiously at Rogue's side. "I thought you healed like me?"

Rogue shook her head; the pain was causing her to feel cold and numb. "M-mah healing powers were borrowed. Ah already used up my other powers."

"Do you still have the claws?"

Rogue winced; she lifted up her left hand and slowly unsheathed the bone claws. X-23 stepped back as the skin between her knuckles ripped open and gushed out blood.

The petite girl huffed in irritation when she saw the pain was too much for Rogue. "I'll take that as a no."

Rogue stood up slowly with a hand to her side. She didn't want to ask X-23 for her healing powers. She just wanted to get off the bridge, which was barely holding them up.

"What next?"

"He's going to heal; we have to find Deadpool quick."

The two were off the ruined bridge when they heard a soft _SNIKT_ sound. Rogue begged quietly to herself that it wasn't Logan. X-23, who was supporting her, swore out loud.

"What? What is it?"

"I was hoping we wouldn't run into her." X-23 groaned, she slowly set Rogue to the ground and looked around the room widely.

"'Her'? Who's her?" Rogue asked.

"Lady Deathstrike." As soon as X-23 uttered the name a tall Japanese woman dropped down from the bridge above them. She had long black hair that was braided down her back, with a small mace tied to the end of the braid.

Rogue noticed that the woman's arms were long and completely fake. Ten claws jutted out from the lady's fingers, each as long and deadly as X-23's.

"X-23-chan." Lady Deathstrike smiled wickedly as she circled the two girls. "We have been looking for you." She added sweetly though her eyes remained cold.

X-23 and Lady Deathstrike ran straight for each other with claws out. Rogue watched helplessly as the two women stabbed each other. Neither one of them stopped to heal or scream in pain.

Rogue tried to charge the bridge but had used up all of Gambit's kinetic powers. The two were still going at it, ripping and stabbing each other apart quicker than they could heal themselves.

"Little girls shouldn't play with things they can't handle." Warned a dark Russian accented voice. Rogue recognized Omega Red from Wolverine's memories; he was really tall with long blond hair tied in a high ponytail. Rogue could see why Sinister may have liked him; he had the same pasty white face and red eyes, not to mention he was a serial killer.

Omega Red tentacles hovered over him, like an attack dogs waiting for their master's order. "Hmm," he looked at Lady Deatstrike and X-23 with half interest, "Little girls who cause trouble should be punished."  
"No!" Rogue tried run but felt Omega Red's thick cold tentacles wrap around her middle and arms. "Argh! Let me go yah fool!" The pain in her side tripled when Omega squeezed her tighter over his head.

"You will pay for your insolence."

Rogue tried desperately to kick him/ Omega Red's hold was getting stronger, Rogue could have sworn she heard a few of her ribs break.

"YEEEEEEHHHHHHHAAAAAAAA!"

The two looked up to see Deadpool diving head first at them. He head budded Omega, causing the mutant to drop Rogue in surprise.

"Dude, what did I say? You can't just kidnap your date, _you_ have to woo. _WOO_. Otherwise you're just that ugly creepy guy who wets the bed." Deadpool pulled Rogue up, noting the blood soaked sweat shirt. "I think someone needs a little help." He pulled off his glove.

"Deadpool, no!" But it was too late, Deadpool touched her face. She got a good dose of his healing powers and a handful of his memories.

Rogue groaned as the wounds began to heal on their own, she could tell Deadpool was smiling behind his mask. "No need to thank me, I know I'm great" Before Rogue could reply Omega Red wrapped his tentacles around Deadpool's neck, chocking the poor mercenary without mercy.

"C-C'mon b-buddy. Take it ee-easy." Deadpool gasped through the choke hold.

Rogue ran up and pulled out Deadpool's swords from the case behind his back, "Can Ah barrow these?" She had enough knowledge about katanas from Deadpool's memories and the two ninjas she had taken out when she and Logan were going up against the Red Samurai.

She flipped the swords over and twirled them a few times between her fingers. "Let's see what the 'little girl' can do." She whispered menacingly under her breath. Rogue chucked one sword at Omega Red's tentacles, cutting off two of them.

Omega Red let out an irritated yell, he threw Deadpool aside and casted his sights on Rogue.

"You will pay for that."

Rogue winked, "C'mon sugah." She crooked her finger at him. "If yah think you take me." She knew full well that half of what she was saying was coming from Deadpool's personality.

Rogue still had one sword left; she could still win this without touching Omega Red.

She flipped over the giant Russian when he charged at her. Her feet didn't even have the chance to touch the ground when her grabbed her again, turning her upside down.

"Yah know, you're uglier close up." Rogue smiled, irritating the killer mutant more. She sliced the sword through his stomach, making him drop her in shock. She then shoved the sword through his neck, feeling the tip of the sword go through him and the _chip_.

Omega Red's eyes went dull as she pulled the sword out. Deadpool watched in amazement as the six foot six inch mutant drop to the floor, face first.

"That was so…" he looked at Rogue with new eyes. "Hot."

Rogue handed him back his sword. "And messy." She added disgustingly, wiping off the blood from her hands.

"GOTCHA!"

Deadpool howled in pain as conscious and healed Sabretooth dug his claws into ankles, dragging him down to the bridge under him.

Rogue tried to pull Deadpool away but was no match against the feral animal. She looked around for X-23 who was winning the fight against Lady Deathstrike. She ran to help so that they could both take down Sabretooth again.

"Going somewhere, darling?"

Rogue could feel the blood drain from her face. Logan, dressed in an all black Weapon-X uniform, stepped out from the shadows with claws drawn.

Rogue could tell just by the sound of his voice that he wasn't the same anymore. There was no way that she could get close enough to him to absorb the side effects of whatever Weapon-X did to him without getting skewered by the claws.

"Logan, it's me."  
Logan's eyes remain cold as he walked stealthily towards Rogue. She backed away, but Logan had her trapped. There was no way that she could get off the bridge without getting past him.

"Logan, please. Don't do this!" She begged as Logan held his claws by her throat. "Ah don't want to hurt you."

Logan sniggered, "Hurt me? You should be more worried about me killing you for coming here. You're pathetic."

Rogue's eyes pooled with tears, she couldn't believe that the person she loved most in the world was about to kill her.

Logan sniffed and then growled in irritation. Before he could move a step away he was flattened by something that had landed on him.

"Miss me?" Gambit smirked, dusting off his Weapon-X uniform.

Rogue couldn't help but smile and wrap her arms around the Cajun's neck.

"I'll take that as 'oui'."

He could feel Logan coming up from behind him and elbowed the man hard in the nose. (1) "Y'okay?" he asked Rogue, hands on her shoulders for support.

Rogue nodded, wiping away the tears. "Ah should be asking yah that. Ah guess yah already know that Sinister is behind this?"

"Yeah, I know." He felt Logan come up again and turned around. Rogue watched in awe as Gambit charged Logan with his _eyes_.

Logan looked at his pink glowing body in alarm; the charge was starting to peel his skin.

"Get down." Gambit pulled Rogue as far away as he could and covered her using his body.

A minute later Logan body exploded, the stench was awful. Rogue covered her nose and mouth as the smell of burnt human meat permeated the room, mixing in with the formaldehyde. She looked up to see Logan's body smoldering; parts of his metal clad bones could be seen peaking through chunks of his missing skin. Half of his face was ripped off and starting to heal again.

Rogue gulped, "Ah think yah just pissed him off."

Gambit took out the bo-staff that Sinister had planned to given him after the operations were finished. "When isn't he?"

Gambit charged the staff and stabbed the end into Logan's stomach, throwing him over the bridge.

The floor exploded, sending waves of debris up at them. Gambit and Rogue rushed to the rail and were amazed to see Logan had disappeared.

"_Merde!" _Gambit looked back at Rogue, "Go help Wade. I"ll take of him." He ordered before jumping down. Gambit landed expertly on his feet, the floor was soaked from the broken cylinders.

"C'mon Logan. Where are you?" Gambit whispered walking past the still standing cylinders. It was all déjà vu for him; he could remember walking past the dead experimented mutants from when he was thirteen.

"GARRHH!" Gambit spun around and let out muffled scream as Logan pulled out his claws from his stomach. Gambit could feel his body working fast to heal as Logan stabbed him again in the chest.

Gambit's eyes were burning with power; he charged Logan's hands and flipped backwards. The explosion left Logan with his skin missing. Gambit winced; it made Logan even more menacing to look at. From elbow down it was all muscle and metal clad bones.

"Homme," Gambit shook his head in disgust, "dat's messed up." Logan growled in irritation and charged at Gambit again.

This time Gambit was ready, he blocked Logan before he had a chance to slice him. Logan looked confused; his claws hadn't been able to cut through the staff.

"Adamantium claws meet adamantium staff." Gambit flipped the staff a few times to show off; he smashed the end against Logan's face, dislocating the man's jaw.

"What? You t'ink you're de only one?" Gambit smirked. He flipped Logan over and threw a slew of charged bits of glass from the ground at him. The tiny bits embedded into Logan's skin before exploding. Each little "pop" left his skin fried to a crisp.

Logan was starting to get more wobbly with each attack. His arms were slowly starting to heal again when Gambit pierced the charged staff into his leg. He let out a howl and punched the Cajun in the face with claws extended.

Gambit could feel his face burning; he touched his left cheek and could feel the large gash. Now he was pissed, he smacked Logan in the face again sending the man down.

"You're funny, y'know dat?" He asked angrily, he hit Logan in the throat. "Poor, poor Logan. No past and no future." Gambit taunted, flipping the staff a few times in each hand. He was so sick of Logan's attitude towards him, he knew all about Logan's past. What he had done with Weapon-X and how he joined the X-men. He had wanted so badly to punch Logan for thinking of him as dishonest and a trader.

Who was he to judge when he barely knew him?

"You act all high and mighty when you know you aint dat good yourself. You t'ink you de only one different around these parts?" He kicked Logan hard in the stomach, causing him to cough up blood.

"De only one filled with rage? De only one with things he's ashamed of? Destroying everything in your path?" He yelled and kicked Logan harder.

Logan was slowly staring to loose his energy; he could barely pick himself up now. He looked up and saw that Gambit's eyes were now burning red with power. He tried to swipe him again, but Gambit kicked his hand away and the charged staff into his shoulder, burning it.

"To bad mon ami, we would have made a really good team." (2) Gambit clicked the third button on his bo-staff that released the knives at the end. "If we weren't trying to kill each other."

From atop of the bridge he could hear Rogue scream "NO!" But ignored her and stabbed the knife into the back of Logan's neck.

Logan let out a blood curling scream as Gambit forcefully pulled the knife out of his neck. Gambit looked at the sizzling chip that was skewered on the tip of his knife and smirked, "Now dat didn't hurt a bit now, did it?" He looked down at Logan who was slowly starting to become lucid. "How's de patient doing today, mon ami?" he asked a bit too chipper.

Logan massaged his neck, "I'm going to kick your a-"

"LOGAN!" Rogue rushed towards him with the others in tow.

"Rogue." Logan hugged her tightly before pulling away to look over her. "You okay?" he asked her, peeking over her shoulder to see Lady Deathstrike, Omega Red, X-23, Deadpool, and Sabretooth standing and, oddly, waiting patiently for them.

"What's going on here?" he asked her quietly.

"Sinister and Thorton wanted you all back again." Gambit answered him.

"Sinister? What's he got to do with this?" Logan asked confusingly, he looked back at Rogue for the answer.

Rogue smiled nervously and stepped closer towards Gambit, "A lot, actually. He was the one who planned all this."

"HE WHAT?"

Deadpool laughed, "Still the same there, huh Howlett?"  
"Shut up, Wilson." Logan growled.

Deadpool shrugged, "Hey don't blame me. Gambit was the one that stabbed you." He gave Gambit two thumbs up. "Nice job, buddy."

"Do any of you know how to get out of here?" Lady Deathstrike asked, flexing her fingers back and forth. She was itching to have a rematch again with X-23 for stabbing her neck _and_ for cutting her arms off.

"Dere should be an unprotected exit on the north side. Shouldn't be hard to get out since Deadpool cut the alarms and security cameras off."

"He might have cut off the alarms and cameras, but he didn't cut off my psychic abilities." Said a cold taunting voice.

Logan and X-23 both unsheathed their claws; they along with Sabretooth could smell gun powder. A lot of it.

Sinister and Thorton both stepped out, smiling and not bothered at all that their pet projects had managed to take out their chips.

"Christopher, I see that you are all better. Glad to see you up from your surgery." Sinister cooed, he snapped his fingers signaling one hundred Weapon-X guards to come out of their hiding spots. "Unfortunately, we're not finished with you or your friends."

Thorton smiled sadistically from behind Sinister, his bionic claw hand flexed loudly behind his back. "We have special plans for you all. Unless you want to join your other friends." he nodded towards the floating bodies.

Gambit stood in front of his friends, his eyes though were glued to his father. "You're not gettin' us back."

Sinister shook his head in disappointment, "Christopher, be reasonable here. I'm offering you and your friends absolute power. The chance to become more than a mutant."

"You don't give a damn about mutants, Sinister." Said Logan, "Much less your own son. You don't deserve him back."

Gambit and Rogue both looked at Logan in surprise. He was actually standing up for Gambit.

"Don't you dare tell me how I should treat my son." Sinister snapped angrily, he snapped his finger again.

All the guards pointed their guns straight at Logan.

"You think that scare me?" Logan asked smugly, he charged Sinister with claws out, stabbing the maniac in the chest.

The room was filled with screams, but not from Logan and Sinister, but from the guards. Rogue and the rest looked up and saw that each guard was now on the ground, clutching their neck or chest in pain.

"How did they-?" X-23 stammered before looking at Deadpool who was throwing a small box back and forth in his hands.

"What? Don't tell me you actually thought the Professor let the guards walk around freely, did you?" he showed them the tiny box with various dials. "Each guard is planted with a chip too." He turned the dial box to 'shock' and watched in excitement as a few guards who were still conscious scream in pain again. "I loooovvvveee this thing!"

Omega Red grabbed Thorton by the ankles and hung him upside down. "Don't think we forgot about you." He threw Thorton against the wall. "Where are the rest?"

Sabretooth crushed Thorton's bionic hand into dust. He grabbed the man by the head, digging his claws into his skull. "You better cough up the info, Prof." he pinned Thorton to the wall. Sabretooth slowly dragged his nails deep across Thorton's chest. The man's cries for help and mercy went unheard amongst the vengeful mutants. "Before we get really mad."

Lady Deathstrike joined in on the fun. She stabbed her claws into the Professor's stomach. "We know that there are more mutants. Where are they?"

Thorton began to wheeze heavily as the blood started to flow from his stomach. He could feel his body going limp. "Y-You were the first to be implanted with the chip. The rest of the mutants died from the experiment."  
Sinister could over hear Thorton giving up the information. "You idiot. You'll ruin everything." He tried to move but Logan blocked him.

"That true? You killed a bunch of mutants to see if the chip worked?" Logan asked accusingly.

Sinister didn't look guilty one bit. "For us to flourish in this world a few of us have to make sacrifices."

Gambit backed away, there was no way that he was actually related to a man like this.

"You _killed_ your own people? And for what? Tell me!" Gambit shouted, his grip on his staff was so strong that his knuckles were white as snow. Rogue could see that his eyes matched Sinister's now, red and glowing like the devil's own headlights.

"Those working for the other side shouldn't say much about the rights of mutants." Sinister answered in a clipped tone. He could see that his comment had struck a cord in his son. Gambit casted his head down in shame.

"You see, you accuse me of betraying the mutant race while you yourself almost destroyed it." Sinister said in a tone that made Gambit look even more ashamed of his past.

"Remy didn't betray anyone." Rogue finally spoke up, she got between the father and son incase Sinister decided to pull a fast one. "He's here, aint he? He came to stop yah from getting your hands-"

"Rogue! Dis aint none of your business." Gambit spat, he moved past her. "He's right, I did betray de mutants. I almost killed dem too."

"Remy?" Rogue couldn't believe he admitted that. He seemed so morose now; she was starting to miss the devil-may-care-Gambit now.

"I even gave an anti-mutant Senator a power neutralizer collar, and for what?" Gambit fell onto his knees. For the first time he felt so sick and tired of the same battles with his father and his past.

It was time to come clean.

"I hated you for what you did to her (3)…to me. All dat time I t'ought I killed her, I t'ought dat I was de devil reincarnated." He looked up at his father; the man didn't seem to want to hear this.

"But den I met you." Gambit placed his hands on the floor; everyone froze in their place as the ground glowed hot pink.

"Dude, what the hell are you doing?" Deadpool shouted, feeling the kinetic energy burn under his feet.

"Ending dis." He kept his eyes glued on Sinister, daring the man to make move. "One of us has to."

"I'm for it." Logan added to Gambit's surprise. He stood behind Sinister and held his claws right against the man's throat.

Sabretooth, Omega Red, and Deadpool looked on to see a few other doctors and scientists watching from behind the main door. A few of them were banging the door, they seem to be trapped.

Deadpool laughed, "I'm not gonna let you out so don't even ask! That's for trying to turn me into Barakapool!" he shouted

Omega Red gave Sabretooth a 'don't ask' look.

"We will stay." Omega Red and Sabretooth leaned against the door holding the scientists and doctors' in. "There is no point in letting anyone get out alive."

They looked at Deadpool. "I have to stay here too, don't I?" he asked petulantly. He sighed dramatically and pulled out his gun. "Fine, fine. I'll help kill anyone who decides to run."

Rogue grabbed Logan's arm, "Yah can't be serious, yah can't stay here. What if-?" she couldn't let herself finish the question.

Logan tried to reason with her, he could understand why she was freaking out. He was too; there was no way to make certain that his healing powers would save him from the explosion.

The whole building was now dark pink, Gambit was giving it all he had and it was too late to turn back.

"Yuriko, get Rogue out of here. Now!" Logan ordered. "Get her as far away as possible." He nodded towards X-23. "And her too."

Lady Deathstrike and X-23 began to tug a reluctant Rogue away. "NO! LOGAN!" she shouted, "Yah can't, at least let me stay here and help!"

Logan didn't even look at her, he kept his stance still. "You can help by getting out" Logan ordered again. "There's no point in you getting blown up." Lady Deathstrike threw Rogue over her shoulder, ignoring the punching, kicking, and pleading.

"There's an exit near the arsenal room." Deadpool shouted at them. He looked back at the four guys, bouncing up and down on his tippy toes "So what next?"

Logan shrugged, "It's your call, Gambit."

Gambit never took his eyes off of Sinister's. He looked so adamant about seeing this through, he thought back to his mother.

"Julie-Ann would be so proud of you at this moment." Sinister sarcastically commented, he didn't wince as Logan pressed his claws harder against his throat drawing blood out.

Gambit waited for a few minutes to respond, until he was sure he gave the girls enough time to escape. "We'll never know now, will we?" he replied angrily, he stood up and let go of the ground.

_Outside_…

Rogue was finally able to break free from Deathstrike grasp, but she wasn't stupid enough to go up against X-23's claws.

She looked back to see the building glowing even brighter. "We have tah go back!"

Everything happened way too fast, one minute Rogue was arguing with the two women the next everything was black.

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**Thanks everyone! **

**The funniest scene in the entire Wolverine Origins movie. Poor Gambit, :-) **

**From X-men Origins video game ad**

**His mom, in case you were wondering. **


	8. Chapter 8

"Rogue?"

Rogue couldn't feel anything from the neck down, her whole entire body felt numb and her ears were ringing.

She could barely hear the light female voice calling out to her.

"Rogue?"

For a minute she thought she was back at the institute, maybe Storm was calling her from DR practice?  
"Rogue?"  
Nope, the voice had no accent. She opened her eyes and was surprised to see X-23 looking down at her worriedly.

"Are you okay?"

Rogue tried to open her mouth but her lips felt numb too. She graciously accepted X-23's hands and, with her help, slowly sat up.

She was deeply covered in snow. Her exposed skin was now bright red with a tinge of purple.

How long had she been here? Why was she here?

X-23 kneeled down besides her, "Are you sure you're okay? You really got knocked out?"

Rogue's head went into over drive as she began to remember what happed. She staggered to get up, but her legs were still too weak.

"Where's Yuriko?" Rogue groaned, remembering the long haired Japanese woman.

X-23 pointed out to the distance behind Rogue.

Rogue slowly turned her head to see foot steps going as far as her eyes could see.

"She probably ran off way before I woke up."

Rogue rolled her eyes; she didn't care about the other woman one bit. What was missing here? She looked around to see the snow still falling. Something was missing, she knew it.

"Oh God!" She looked at X-23 with tears in her eyes. "Where's Logan?" she asked frantically, finally remembering the explosion.

X-23 avoided her gaze and turned around.

"What happened?!" Rogue grabbed the younger girl's arm, not caring if their skin touched.

X-23 paused before speaking, grabbing Rogue and making sure that she was completely still. "I've been awake for a while Rogue, no one has come up yet."

Rogue could feel her eyes sting with tears. They weren't dead, they couldn't be. They _shouldn't_ be. She struggled to get up and then gave up once realizing her legs were still numb.

"You have to stay still; your body is still in shock." X-23 tried to make her lean back, but the girl wasn't listening.

"Where are they?" Rogue asked forcefully.

X-23 knew that she wouldn't give up until she saw the damages with her own eyes. Slowly she pulled up Rogue and held her up, careful so as not to let any skin touch. They walked for a bit, the blast had thrown they far.

Rogue let out a shocked gasp when they finally reached Weapon-X, or at least where it last stood.

It was just a crater now. Deep and wide, Rogue could only assume that the distance was as long as five football fields. She looked down, hoping to see something that hinted that Logan and the rest were still alive.

All that rested on the bottom of the crater was rubble and a good of amount of snow sitting on top.

"No." Rogue covered her mouth, forcing herself not to throw up. It was all gone. "They still have to be down there."

There was no way someone could make it out alive; Remy had given all his power into making sure no one did. X-23 knew that, she had a sinking suspicion that Rogue knew that too. Otherwise she wouldn't be crying so much.

"No, no. He can't be gone. He can't!" Rogue dropped to the grown trying her best to hold back the sobs that were threatening to come out. Logan wouldn't have wanted her too, he would have wanted her to stay strong and be responsible. To make sure that she and the others were going to be okay with out him.

She couldn't believe it still, Logan had made it through the explosion at the mansion. Why not this one?

"Rogue?" she could feel X-23's hand on her back. "We need to leave. We can't do anything else here anymore."

Rogue shook her head violently, "N-no." she got up this time on her own, trying her best to steady herself. "A-Ah'n not going w-with out Logan." She stammered. A part of her knew she was crazy, but she was determined to not leave without Logan with her.

"Are you insane?" X-23 grabbed hold of Rogue's arm before she could climb down to retrieve Logan's body. "You can't go down there."

Rogue slapped her hand away; she could feel her whole body shaking with anger and adrenaline. "Watch me."

X-23 stood in her away with arms held out to make sure she had Rogue blocked. "That crater is miles deep. There's no way you can get down there, much less climb back up." She could see the tears begin to fall from Rogue's eyes now. Reality was now setting in the X-man.

Rogue massaged her temples, figuring out a new strategy. She wanted to hold off calling the X-men; she wasn't in the mood to telling them they had just lost another friend/teammate. Even more, she was afraid, she had let down and failed everybody.

"Alright. But they all had healing powers, won't that help?"

X-23 nodded, slightly agreeing with Rogue. "Yes. But with this sort of explosion, it might take months, maybe even years for them to recover."

It obviously wasn't the answer that Rogue wanted to hear. She wiped away the tears again and went back to thinking up a plan B.

The eerie silence between them was cut short by a loud noise and then by an even louder "YYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"

The two girls looked at each other and made a mad dash for the crater where the sounds had come from. At the bottom they could see what appeared to be…Gambit.

"Gambit!" Rogue called out. She could feel her heart skip a bit as Gambit began to shout and pump his fists in the air.

"He's lost it." X-23 commented, but her voice sounded just as relieved as Rogue's did.

Gambit was covered in dirt and what looked like a lot of blood, but he seemed happy. A few minutes later another person popped out from the pile of mess.

Deadpool cracked his neck, arms, spine, and just about every part of his body. His mask and suit was half burnt off, but he seemed to be in one piece. He looked at Gambit who was still celebrating his victory. "Dude, that was freaking awesome." He looked around at the mess and then looked up, amazed at how far away the girls were. "Shame we didn't have a camera, we could so totally put this on you tube." He looked up at Rogue and gave her a wave, "Hey cutie, you got any plans on how to get us out of here?" he yelled out.

Rogue wasn't quite worried about that yet, "Where's Logan?"

Deadpool was about to reply when both Logan and Sabretooth came up. They were each covered in blood and dirt. Sabretooth's uniform covered only half his body while Logan's shirt was completely gone. They each seemed to be missing a bit of hair.

"Gotta admit, bub." Logan patted the bald spot in his head and smiled, "yah do good work."

Gambit looked shocked still, he looked down at his hands, "I can't believe it, he's gone. He's finally gone." Gambit could finally feel himself smile sincerely. "I'm free."

Sabretooth grunted his congrats, "Glad you're happy kid. But we got bigger fish to fry." He sniffed around. "Where's Omega?"

Deadpool shrugged, "Probably changing his diapers or something. Not our problem anymore, buddy."

"Don't call me that."

Deadpool smiled, slapping Sabretooth on the back. "Okay pal."

Sabretooth was ready to jump him when he felt Logan pull him back. "Not worth it, bub." Logan whispered into the other man's ear.

Deadpool looked up and gave out a low whistle. "Seriously, they give us healing powers, claws, weapons, strength, agility, the whole nine yards. But no one thought about flying powers?" Deadpool asked incredulously, looking at the three men for support.

"We'll find something to pull you up with." Rogue shouted down. X-23 was half way on her to find something strong and long enough to pull the men with when Logan stopped her.

"Don't bother; we can get up on our own." Logan informed them.

"How?"

"We can just climb up with out claws."

Deadpool loudly coughed, getting the attention of his three friends. "That's great, for you two. But Gambit and I are missing certain pointy things here." He waved his hands back and forth in front of their faces to make his point.

Logan swatted the merc's hands away and grinned. "Yeah, we know." He and Sabretooth both turned around.

"So who wants to piggy back with me?"

He couldn't see the look of horror on Deadpool and Gambit's face.

"Y'got to be kidding me."

_**Later…**_

Rogue, Logan, Gambit, and Deadpool had made it to the nearest city. Sabretooth and X-23 headed off on their own. Rogue tried her best, as did Logan, to persuade X-23 to join the X-men. But the young girl declined, saying that she wanted to live on her own for awhile before making another commitment to another group. She wanted to finally live without rules and regulation. Rogue and Logan thanked her and told her that if she ever needed a _home_, that she knew where to go.

Sabretooth on the other hand left without a word, Logan suspected that in no time that the blond feral man would become someone else's flunky.

Right now the three- Rogue, Logan, and Gambit- were at a crossroad. They were waiting for Deadpool to show up. Rogue and Logan were waiting for Cyclops and Storm to pick them up. Thankfully the city had tons of shops and hotels to get cleaned up and call home from. They all looked normal and casual in the new clothes.

"Are you sure that Sinister is gone?" Gambit asked anxiously, fidgeting a bit. He knew that Sinister could clone his flunkies on a minute notice, and wasn't so sure if there were anything or anyone who could bring _him_ back to life.

Logan shook his head, "Honestly? I don't know, but I can't see how he would do that." he didn't what else to say to reassure Gambit. They both knew that Sinister was a genius with plans always up his sleeves.

Rogue eyed him for a bit, he looked better at least. She thought that he was back to his old self when he began to flirt with the cashier when he bough his clothes (for half price). The cashier didn't stand a chance against Gambit's charm, plus it didn't hurt that he looked good in his new clothes too. Black hiking boots, dark jeans, a black leather jacket over a blue-gray sweatshirt, his dark stubble and long hair made his eyes especially brighter.

Still, it didn't take that long for Gambit to sink back into his funk. He seemed to be on pin and needles as he waited for Deadpool to show up.

"He's gone, Remy. Yah don't have tah put your self through this anymore." Rogue advised him gently.

It eased Gambit slightly. "Yeah, I know." He sighed, rubbing the sweat from his hands off his jeans. "It's just dat. I need to know for good. Just a sign or anything to tell me dat he's finally gone."

Rogue rolled her eyes and smirked, "Yah blew him up to pieces, isn't that proof enough?"

Gambit smiled, finally relaxing. "Guess you're right."

_Beep beep_.

"What the-?"

Gambit turned around to what Logan was responding too. "Dieu, he didn't."

A dark red maserati pulled up next to the curb. The engine, along with the loud blaring music cut off and the door opened wide.

Rogue let her jaw drop; she instantly knew who the man was. But still couldn't believe it. Dressed in an impeccable white Armani suit, pink shirt, black wing tipped shoes, and sunglasses was Deadpool. His scars had cleared up, and he looked very pleased with himself as he caught two women eye him up and down.

"Somet'ing tells me you didn't buy dis wid your own money, mon ami." Gambit teased, he caught the garment bag Deadpool had thrown at him. He peeked inside the bag to find a tan Versace suit and blue shirt. "Nice." He arched his brows slightly, "Some old homme missing a few credit cards?"

Deadpool adjusted the lapels on his suit and smiled knowingly, "You know it." He winked at Rogue.

"I'm gonna pretend I didn't hear that." Logan growled, crackling his knuckles.

Deadpool pointed at Gambit accusingly, "Hey, he's the one who showed me how to pick pockets!"

Logan shook his head and looked down at his watch, eagerly awaiting the X-men's arrival.

Deadpool looked back at Gambit, "I got probably six to eight hours till the scars come back. And there are some major hotties down in Atlantic City we have got to score on." He looked back at Rogue, "Unless…?"

While he did look good, the idea didn't thrill Rogue at all. He was still the same dangerous mercenary with a mouth. Rogue stepped closer to Logan, "No thanks. Ah'm good."

Deadpool grinned and leaned back against the trunk of the car.

"So." Gambit turned to face Rogue and Logan. "guess dis is it."

Logan grunted, he was slowly warming up to the young man. He stuck out his hand, surprising both Gambit and Rogue with his gesture.

"Sorry, about before." Logan offered, he hated to admit when he was wrong, but he figured that the Cajun deserved it.

"So where are you heading off to now?" Logan asked stiffly, ignoring the look Rogue was giving him.

Gambit rubbed the back of his neck a bit awkwardly. "First off to Atlantic City, den I gotta down to Opelousas." He grinned knowingly at Rogue. "Got a few friends to visit down there."

Logan looked between the two for a moment, catching the look. "Well, if you change your mind, there's always a spot for you at Xavier's."

"Y'mean it?"

Rogue's smile got wider as Logan handed Gambit an official X-men ID that Forge had sent over via e-mail.

Gambit took the small card in awe, "Merci."

Logan shrugged, "Just come through the front door this time, and knock. Got that, Remy?"

Gambit smirked, "Aww, you called me 'Remy'. James, I'm touched." He laid his hands on his heart, battering his eye dramatically.

Logan sighed, "Always gotta act like a smart ass, huh?"

Gambit laughed while nodding, "Pretty much or I'll end up like you." He pulled out a bag from behind the bench they were standing in front off. "It's for Summers." He explained as he handed the bag of clothes to Logan. "Tell him I'm sorry…for a lot of t'ings."

Logan understood what he meant. He got an earful from Beast and Storm when he called the mansion. It was one of the main reasons why Cyclops decided to pick him up.

"He really wanted to talk to you, along with Storm."

"Yeah, I know. I left her a note. Y't'ink she will be upset?" Gambit asked, he didn't want to break Storm's heart again, but he didn't want to upset her life again by reminding her of her past.

"I think she'll be okay." Logan looked at Rogue; he knew she was eager to have some time with Gambit before they went their separate ways. He stepped back a bit and pulled out his disposable cell phone. "I should check when the others are coming."

Finally the two were alone again. Rogue could feel her cheeks burn as Gambit checked her out in her new purple long sleeve tunic, black tights, and gloves.

"Sort of wish you were coming back with us." She told him honestly, she knew she was going to miss him. In the end, she had to admit he wasn't that bad.

Gambit smiled, he was hoping she was going to say that. "Maybe, one day." He waved the card between them. "Guess dis makes it official." He chuckled; he was finally going to be part of the good guys.

Rogue stepped closer to him, "Glad to see you back to normal."

"Not yet, mais close to it." He flexed his fingers, "No more pain and no more worries." He was to say something else when Rogue hugged him. Automatically he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer. "Hey," he pulled away from her but still kept his hands on her waist. "Why don't you come wid me?" he smiled at her reaction. "Y' gotta admit _chere_, we make a good team." He cocked his head over at Deadpool. "And Wade seems to really like you."

The three suddenly turned to see Deadpool holding up an old school boom box with music blaring from the speakers over his head.

"You're always hanging out with Wolverine, couldn't you find some time for me? Gambit's tired playing cards on fire. Don't you know Scott's in love with Jean? Totally helpless, so very hopeless yes its true pretty X-men rogue I love you" (1)

_SNIKT_

Logan brushed pass the two with a threatening glare in his eyes, "Where the hell did the bub get a boom box from?"

Soon enough the radio was sliced into three pieces.

"Hey! I paid good money for that, well not me exactly, but you get my drift!"

Rogue smirked, "As much as that does sound good. Ah think Ah'll pass." she looked over at Logan who was still duking it out with Deadpool. "Ah gotta stay. Logan and Ah, we still have work to do."

Gambit half expected this answer; he smiled easily and hugged Rogue again. "Can't say I'm not disappointed. My charms might be wearing off faster den I t'ough."

"Ah wouldn't say that."

Gambit grabbed her hand and kissed the back of it. "Till we meet again, mon chere." He gave her one last wink before getting into the car and driving off.

Rogue and Logan stood on the curb for a while as the car drove off out of sight.

"You're gonna miss him."

Rogue could tell he wasn't asking, it was obvious that she was going to miss him. She could already feel the tears run down her cheeks. "He's a good guy Logan."

"Yeah," Logan sat on the bench and continued to wait for Storm and Scott. "I know." Rogue sat down close next to him, and with out a word or warning Logan wrapped his arm around her shoulders in comfort.

"Yah think we'll ever see him again?" Rogue asked after awhile, brushing away the last tear.

"The Prof did say he would join the team eventually. Just a matter of time." He answered her honestly. He made a mental note to ask Charles exactly when Gambit would join the team.

"Just a matter of time, huh?"

Logan nodded wordlessly and watched Rogue through one eye as she pulled her legs close.

"Ah can wait." She was a bit taken back when she felt Logan's other hand wrap around her hand.

"We can wait together then."

_**Later…**_

Gambit and Deadpool had been driving six hours straight. Both were eager to kick back and relax in Atlantic City after all the drama they went through.

'_Christopher.'_

Gambit sat up suddenly at the sound of his name. He could have sworn he heard someone. He looked at Deadpool quizzically, "Did y'hear dat?"

Deadpool shifted his eyes away from the road, "Hear what?'

'_Christopher.'_

A chill went up Gambit's spine. The voice was so clear and daunting sounding. "Pull over. Now." He ordered Deadpool.

"Are you crazy?" Despite the talkback Deadpool pulled over to the shoulder and waited as Gambit unbuckled and stepped out.

Gambit looked around him wildly only to see a long stretch of road with a few cars whizzing past him and trees. He looked around, using his empathy to pick up any hostile emotions.

Nothing.

"What's up?" Deadpool asked through the passenger window. He could see the color on Gambit's face had drained.

"N-not'ing." Gambit got back into the car. "I hope" he added on quietly as Deadpool pulled into traffic and drove off.

He never saw the dark red eyes follow after him.

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**Fin.**

**Slightly anticlimactic, but it does seem fitting. **

**Thanks everyone and I hope you all like this story. **

**1) The song is from Smoochknob **


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